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RECLAIMING 

THE  OLD  HOUSE 

ITS  MODERN  PROBLEMS  AND 

THEIR  SOLUTION  AS  GOVERNED  BY 
THE  METHODS  OF  ITS  BUILDERS 


WriBen  and  lar^'efy  zYlii/irdied  Ay 

CHAS.EDW.HOOPER 

Atdl^or  qf"T/)e  Counirylfouse^^ 


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NEW  YORK 
Jifc^ride,  JVasi  ^  Compaity,  FziMisAers 

1     i)     1     J 


Copyright,    1913,    by 
McBride,  Nast  &  Co. 


Published,   April,    1913 


<SD c) s)  €p  C) €> (pc>nrrk  <^^^^C>^C>€> 

John  Henry  Hooper 


26132G 


REFACE. 


^^ 


One  can  do  much  with  an  old-time  house  by  under- 
standing its  language;  a  step  further — one  has  a  bet- 
ter knowledge  of  French,  who  can  think  in  French, 
The  old  house  was  not  as  a  rule  the  brain  child  of 
the  professional  or  even  amateur  architect;  almost  al- 
ways it  was  conceived  in  a  mind  steeped  in  tradition  and  born 
only  when  the  last  shaving  fell  from  the  plane  of  its  crafts- 
man parent.  Tradition  and  custom  thus  applied  and  supple- 
mented by  local  limitation,  could  breed  only  localism.  But  if 
tradition  bred  localism,  localism  in  turn  bred  variety;  every 
section  did  not  solve  its  problems  in  the  same  way;  its  language 
is  often  as  diverse  as  that  of  the  several  German  states.  Be- 
cause of  this  the  average  architect  is  seldom  successful  in  restor- 
ing the  old  house;  the  note  from  Westover  or  Mt.  Vernon  rings 
false  in  halls  of  Ladd  or  Van  Cortlandt.  The  craftsman  sought 
expression  by  means  of  methods  unfamiliar  to  the  architect, 
methods  which  were  apart  from  his  training.  The  traditions  of 
the  father  were  the  heritage  of  the  son;  the  art  of  the  world  is 
the  heritage  of  the  architect. 

The  reader  may  find  that  his  localisms  differ  slightly  from 
such  as  we  may  herein  describe.  This  we  expect  as  a  matter 
of  course;  we  have  not  searched  every  nook  and  corner;  we  are 
not  writing  a  history.  It  was  localism  that  marked  the  old  house 
as  a  native  born;  it  is  thus  evident  that  the  local  touch  gives  the 
local  flavor.  This  fact  we  wish  to  impress  strongly.  The  native- 
born  walks  the  streets  of  his  own  town  without  comment;  'tis  the 
foreigner  who  is  noticeable,  whose  accent  or  pronunciation  is 
false.  The  more  man  has  been  driven  by  necessity,  the  more  con- 
centrated has  been  his  endeavor,  the  better  his  results.  The 
forced  conditions  of  the  early  settlers  has  given  us  the  best  of 
Colonial  tradition.  To  study  old  houses,  one  must  be  an  anti- 
quarian, even  though  his  researches  extend  no  further  than  his 
own  dooryard.  Therefore  we  beg  the  reader  to  seek  for  himself 
the  inspiration  that  awaits  him  in  such  examples  as  surround  his 
old  house. 

We  would  here  acknowledge  the  courtesy  of  Doubleday,  Page 
&  Company  and  The  Crowell  Publishing  Company  in  allowing 
us  the  use  of  photographs  and  drawings  already  published  in 
Country  Life  in  America  and  the  Woman's  Home  Companion. 
We  have  identified  those  of  the  former  by  "C.  L.";  those  of  the 
latter  by  "W.  H.  C." 


ABLE  OF  Contents. 

Chapter  One 
SELECTION    .......     13 

Chapter  ^wo 
PLANNING ....    25 

Chapter  T^hree 
EXTERIOR  DETAILS      ........    42 

Chapter  Four 
INTERIOR  DETAILS  .........    57 

Chapter  Five 
HARDWARE 73 

Chapter  Six 
FURNITURE 86 

Chapter  Seven 
A  PRACTICAL  EXAMPLE    .......   101 

Chapter  Eight 
OUTBUILDINGS,  ETC .113 

Chapter  Nine 
THE  GARDEN 128 

Chapter  T!en 
FENCES  AND  ENCLOSURES    ....     .     .   148 

GLOSSARY     .............     .,    .   161 


1ST  OF  ■LLUSTRATIONS. 


Note — The  dates  given  are  those  commonly  accepted;  with 
very  few  exceptions  they  have  not  been  verified  by  the  author. 
They  are  apt  to  be  earlier  than  the  house  as  it  appears,  al- 
though the  core  may  be  much  earlier  than  the  skin.  The  local 
historian  is  likely  to  give  us  what  looks  well  and  is  satisfac- 
tory to  his  public,  regardless  of  plausibility. 


The  old  Whitman  houses   Farmington,  Conn.    (1680) Fronti8pi4ce 

Facing  Paoi 

The  Joel  West  house,  East  Hampton,  Conn 13 

Variations  of  the  highway  frontage 14 

The  heritage   of  big  trees 15 

A  bit  of  the  coast  as  a  prospect 19 

The  apple  orchard  as  a  feature  of  the  site 18 

An  old  house  with  a  sound  frame  but  dilapidated  exterior 19 

A  fisherman's  cottage  at  Martha's  Vineyard 19 

An  old  house  sheltered  by  two  trees 22 

A  good  example  of  the  old  Colonial  type 23 

A  prospect  in  the  Connecticut  Valley 23 

An  old  house  nestling  close  to  the  water's  edge 23 

The   Peter   Tufts   house,    Medford,   Mass.    (1677-1680) 26 

An  Asher  Benjamin  house  at  Windsor,  Vt 28 

One  of  the  Ellsworth  houses  at  Windsor,  Vt.  (about  1750) 27 

An  old  house  of  "B"  plan  with  a  chimney  stack 27 

"Grumblethorp,"    Germantown,    Pa 30 

"Stenton,"   Germantown,   Pa.    (1727) 30 

The    Nelson   house,    Yorktown,    Va 31 

A  Southern  type  with  the  two-storied  piazza 31 

An  old  Connecticut    gambrel-roof    house 38 

An  old  Dutch  house  on  Long  Island,  N.  Y 38 

An  example  of  Greek  influence  on  late  New  England  Georgian 39 

An  old  house  at  Yorktown,  Va 39 

Two  examples  of  the  three-story  house 44 

Entrance  motive  to  HoUister  house,  Greenfield,  Mass.   (1800) 44 

Detail  of  the  Bowne  house.  Flushing,  Long  Island,  N.  Y 45 

The  "stoep"  of  a  Dutch  house  on  Long  Island,  N.  Y 4^ 

Two   Colonial   craftsmen'^s   doorways 48 

Details  of  a  Dutch  house  on  Long  Island,  N.  Y 49 

Late  New  England  Colonial  entrance  influenced  by  the  Greek  Revival     ....  49 

The  Taylor  house,  Roxbury,  Mass 54 

A  rear  piazza  in  the  Connecticut  Valley 54 

Detail  of  an  overhang  with  chamfered  posts 55 

Overhang  detail  of  Whitman  house,  Farmington,  Conn 55 

An  old  kitchen  of  the  pre-Revolution  period 60 

Hall  of  a  Dutch  house  on  Long  Island,  N.  Y 61 

Detail  of  the  Bowne  house.  Flushing,  Long  Island,  N.  Y 61 

Built-in  buffet  of  the  early  type 66 

Southern   interior   doorway 66 

A  New  England  hallway   (about  1750) 67 

An  example  of  the  Southern  stairway  in  the  North 67 

A  Southern  interior  doorway  of  the  later  period 70 

A  Southern  mantel  of  the  middle  period 70 

A  New  England  mantel  and  Franklin  stove 71 

A  Dutch   mantel   from    Long   Island,    N.   Y 71 

Old  locks,  hinges,  latches  and  knockers 74 

Wrought-iron  latch  grips  for  exteriors,  and  knockers 75 

Iron,  bronze  and  brass  latches,  and  knockers 78 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Pacing  Page 

Brass  and  bronze  knockers 79 

Knockers,  surface-hinge  and  door  scrapers 84 

Reproductions  in  brass  of  latches  and  knockers 85 

Old  and  modern  Colonial  wall  papers 88 

An  old  hooked  rug  and  a  modern  design 89 

Old  and  new  Colonial   furniture 94 

Two  old  mirrors  with  eagle  emblems 95 

An  old-time  lantern 95 

Inlaid  lyre  hat-tree  and  a  tip  table 95 

Old  and  new  Colonial  chairs 98 

A  Colonial  dining-room 99 

A  Colonial  living-room 99 

An  old  house  before  and   after  alterations 103 

The  altered  house  from  the  street 103 

The  altered  house  from  the  water-side 103 

Front    entrance 104 

Kitchen  entrance  based  on  the  woodshed  motive 104 

A  detail  of  the  dining-room 105 

The  reception  room  mantel 105 

Detail  of  the  dining-room  mantel 110 

The    living-room    fireplace 110 

The   dining-room  buffet Ill 

The  new  stairs Ill 

An  old  Long  Island  barn 114 

A  Connecticut  barn  boarded  vertically 114 

The   Baldwin   stables.   North  Woburn,  Mass 115 

Corn-crib  on  the  Baldwin  Estate 115 

Outhouse  and  woodshed,  screened 118 

The  old  Taylor  stable  at  Roxbury,  Mass 118 

Minot  house.   Concord,   Mass 119 

Caretaker's  quarters  attached  to  a  modern  barn 119 

An    open   woodshed 122 

A    lattice-screened    woodshed 122 

An  old  well  and  sweep 123 

Covered  well  attached  to  the  house 123 

Arbor-sheltered  entrance  to  the  Keyes  garden,  Putney,  Vt 134 

Octagonal    arbor    at    "Boxwood,"    Lyme,    Conn 134 

The  Keyes  garden  from  the  division  wall 135 

Entrance  to  the  Prince  house.  Flushing,  Long  Island,  N.  Y 135 

Sarkey   garden,   Essex,    Conn 138 

Pentagonal  summer-house  on  the  Hollister  place,  Greenfield,  Mass 138 

Two   views   of   the   Sarkey    gardens 139 

Garden  path.  Old  Manse,  Deerfield,  Mass 144 

Allyn    garden,    Saybrook,    Conn 144 

High-growing  elements  in  the  flower  garden 145 

An  old  enclosed  front  yard 150 

A  new  gate  in  an  old  fence 150 

A  gateway  in  the  style  of  the  Greek  Revival 151 

An  old  fence  with  a  stone  base 151 

An  old  fence  at  Salem,  Mass 154 

Repetition  of  design  in  fence  and  porch  rail 155 

A  pleached   entrance 155 

A   fence  combination   of  lattice  and  pickets 158 

An  old  walk   sheltered  by  old   growth 158 

Entrance  to  the  Garrettson  house,  Flushing,  Long  Island,  N.  Y 159 

Gateway  to  the  Cowles  house,  Fannington,   Conn. 159 


The   Joel    West   house   at  East    llampion,   Conn.      An   early   example,    having   a    Dutch 
"kick"  to  the  piazza  roof,  and  a  half-door  at  the  end  of  the  piazza  to  keep  off  the  wind 


RECLAIMING  THE 
OLD  HOUSE 


Chapter  One 
S£LECTlON 

FOR  one  who  has  an  atom  of  poetry  in  his  soul,  there  is 
a  tremendous  fascination  in  the  antique.  With  some  it 
may  be  but  a  passing  interest,  as  when  one  is  brought 
in  contact  with  some  interesting  specimen  of  the  handi- 
craft of  earlier  days.  Others  become  worshipers  at  the  shrine, 
purposely  seeking,  and  even  collecting,  from  simple  pleasure. 
Probably  too,  there  are  many  people  who  would  hardly  con- 
sider a  bit  of  old  lace,  or  relic  of  an  unforgotten  war,  and  yet 
display  a  lively  interest  in  an  old  house.  The  latter  is  perhaps 
nearer  to  the  sympathies  of  the  many,  inasmuch  as  it  is  closer 
to  the  needs  of  human  existence.  At  all  events,  for  a  number 
of  years  past,  there  are  many  who  have  taken  up  old  places  and 
made  homes  of  them.  For  the  most  part  this  experiment  has 
destroyed  the  character  of  the  subject;  at  times  even  bordering 
on  the  criminal.  Few  have  kept  the  feeling  of  the  old  thing, 
while  the  failures  have  not  been  from  want  of  inclination  or  lack 
of  trying.  With  these  last  it  simply  is  a  question  of  not  under- 
standing the  subject — of  groping  in  the  dark  for  something 

13 


14  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

which  is  plain  enough  if  one  looks  in  the  right  direction.  Ten 
to  one  the  first  thing  that  the  average  person  thinks  of,  upon  be- 
coming the  owner  of  an  old  house,  is  the  addition  of  a  piazza; 
and  ten  to  one  this  feature  is  not  a  part  of  the  style  to  which 
he  would  tack  it.  It  is  simply  a  clash  between  two  demands 
and  conditions  of  living;  being  then  entirely  at  sea,  the  result 
is  unavoidable.  But  a  piazza  or  a  legitimate  substitute  can  be 
put  on  any  house,  even  though  such  be  not  a  feature  of  the  style. 
This,  however,  would  not  be  a  restoration,  rather  more  like  say- 
ing "mugwump"  in  the  language  of  the  Pharaohs — but  of  this 
later. 

Now  let  us  take  up  the  subject  at  the  beginning,  in  a  mat- 
ter-of-fact way,  and  proceed  through  the  natural  channels  to  a 
definite  conclusion:  First  catch  your  fish.  One  knows  in  a 
general  way  from  the  history  just  about  what  he  may  expect 
to  find  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Naturally  one  does  not 
look  for  relics  of  1650  in  a  country  that  was  a  howling  wilder- 
ness at  that  time;  this  is  a  thing  to  be  remembered.  We  are, 
unfortunately,  slaves  to  a  certain  mistaken  notion  that  every- 
thing that  may  be  called  old  dates  from  The  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims  and  Sixteen  Twenty.  Of  all  our  helpless  pioneers, 
they  have  been  saddled  with  most  of  the  impossibles.  There 
is  enough  of  household  furniture  and  utensils  purported  to  have 
come  over  in  the  3Iay flower,  to  have  sunk  several  modern  navies ; 
while  they  who  have  pinned  their  ancestry  to  this  little  band 
would  make  it  imperative  to  have  adopted  all  the  foundlings  in 
England  in  bearing  out  such  facts.  Having  been  rationalized 
in  the  knowledge  of  conditions,  one  may  cease  to  expect  impossi- 
bilities and  accept  things  as  they  are.  Really  they  are  sufiicient 
in  themselves. 

Among  the  best  things  to  consult,  after  your  history,  are 
the  government  charts,  which  are  drawn  on  a  scale  of  an  inch  to 
the  mile,  and  are  quite  reliable  and  complete.  These  show  con- 
tours of  the  land  giving  elevations,  roads  and  even  houses  when 
it  is  possible.  Of  course,  these  charts  as  yet  do  not  cover  the 
whole  of  the  country,  but  there  is  much  that  is  covered  and  in 
such  cases  the  chart  is  valuable.  Then  there  are  the  newspaper 
advertisements  and  the  catalogues  of  several  agents  who  make 
a  specialty  of  farm  property.     But  whatever  section  you  may 


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SELECTION  15 


select,  be  sure  that  it  is  practical, — that  is,  does  it  cover  your 
requirements  as  to  accessibility  in  its  nearness  to  public  convey- 
ance, and  in  elapsed  time  to  and  from  your  business?  Even 
if  it  be  a  summer  problem,  which  is  more  than  likely,  it 
must  be  understood  that  week-end  trips  are  tiresome  at  the  best, 
and  one  does  not  care  to  spend  all  one's  time  on  the  road.  Fur- 
ther than  this,  there  is  the  question  of  traveling  expenses — of 
vast  importance  to  the  most  of  us. 

Then  there  is  the  locality  itself.  Is  it  healthy?  What  are 
its  inhabitants?  Has  it  any  public  nuisance  or  insect  pests? 
What  of  supplies  and  their  prices;  the  local  store  probably  of- 
fers some  minor  articles,  or  it  may  be  good  enough  to  be  abso- 
lutely relied  on — ^very  likely,  however,  one  must  get  things  from 
the  outside — can  such  be  gotten  with  ease?  Your  postal  serv- 
ice— what  of  that?  Then  there  is  fuel,  an  all  important  prob- 
lem. What  of  climatic  conditions;  of  prevailing  winds?  Do 
you  get  any  benefit  from  the  latter?  The  roads  are  also  rather 
important  factors — one  should  understand  what  he  is  getting 
in  this  direction.  Is  it  the  same  old  dust  heap  turned  over  and 
over,  or  what? 

Look  into  the  taxes:  is  the  rate  high  or  low?  If  it  is  high, 
is  it  offset  by  the  valuation  ?  In  what  light  will  the  town  officials 
receive  your  coming — fairly,  as  a  law-abiding  citizen  or  unfairly 
as  one  who  is  too  fat  and  hence  is  to  be  squeezed.  Unfair  taxa- 
tion is  expensive  to  fight — better  get  a  point  or  two  on  this  line. 

There  are  many  townships  in  which,  of  the  several  villages, 
one  is  still  "alive"  and  holds  the  large  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion and  hence  the  controlling  vote.  Should  you  select  one  of 
these  lesser  villages,  be  forewarned  that  you  may  expect  more 
or  less  trouble  from  the  larger  center,  which  having  little  per- 
sonal interest  in  any  other  direction  but  its  own,  will  put  such 
valuation  and  tax  on  your  holdings  as  it  may  see  fit,  and  it  is 
surprising  how  these  officials  will  suddenly  become  almost  human 
and  discover  unrecorded  beauties  of  nature  and  charming  views 
— in  other  folk's  dooryards.  If  you  have  them  for  neighbors, 
you  have  some  base  of  comparison;  their  property  against  yours, 
and  perhaps  a  chance  at  redress,  if  you  care  to  take  it  up.  But 
with  the  former  condition  you  are  practically  at  their  mercy,  and 
your  local  official,  if  you  are  lucky  enough  to  have  even  that,  is 


16  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

naturally  powerless  against  such  odds.     Now  this  is  neither  a 
vision  nor  a  theory;  we  know  whereof  we  speak. 

Suppose. then  you  have  located  a  possibility  that  is  pleasing. 
The  next  step  is  to  look  it  over.  Outside  of  the  general  outlay 
of  the  place,  we  would  naturally  turn  to  the  house  first — but 
let  us  digress  in  favor  of  the  land  for  a  moment.  What  is  the 
immediate  neighborhood  and  what  its  neighbors;  are  they 
desirable  or  otherwise;  will  they  respect  your  property  when 
you  are  away?  It  might  be  well  to  know!  At  all  events,  get 
what  elbow  room  you  can — you  will  need  it.  At  the  same  time 
consider  that  the  care  of  several  acres,  other  than  woodland,  will 
occasion  some  expense.  Your  lot  should  be  above  the  road  level 
and  drain  onto  it  rather  than  receive  drainage  from  it.  Old 
houses,  as  a  general  rule,  had  their  living-rooms  facing  the  street, 
and  unless  there  be  a  chance  easily  to  arrange  the  plan  to  accom- 
modate a  good  rearward  view,  your  being  below  the  road,  or 
too  near  to  it,  might  be  a  serious  objection.  Our  forefathers 
had  little  time  to  sit  about  and  view  the  beauties  of  Nature  and 
it  is  very  likely  that  their  taste  leaned  but  slightly  in  such  a 
direction.  The  Colonial  farmer  was  a  working  man:  hardly  a 
gentleman  of  leisure,  and  consequently  he  built,  for  the  most  part, 
on  the  highway  to  fit  the  practical  part  of  his  existence.  The 
merchant,  and  those  of  more  professional  calling  than  the  farmer, 
perhaps  retired  a  bit  farther  from  the  highway,  but  those  in 
New  England  who  built  well  in  from  the  highway,  in  the  south- 
ern manner,  are  very  rare.  This  nearness  to  the  road  is  very  apt 
to  be  a  menace,  owing  to  its  lack  of  privacy  under  most  condi- 
tions. It  is  rather  a  hard  problem  to  handle  successfully  at 
times,  and  should  be  considered  and  solved  in  outline,  at  least 
during  the  first  survey. 

One  thing  on  which  the  possibilities  of  the  place  largely 
hinges  is  the  outlook.  We  who  have  time  to  take  up  with  the 
problem  at  all  will  demand  this.  Now  what  is  the  character  of 
your  view?  Is  it  unobstructable,  i.  e.,  can  future  developments 
destroy  it?  If  the  view  is  locally  obstructed — that  is,  on  the 
land  itself — one  can  remedy  it, — but  the  outside  obstruction  is 
beyond  correction. 

The  general  chara«ter  of  the  surface  of  the  plot  is  a  thing 
to  be  noted  well  at  the  start.     On  this,  too,  in  a  measure,  de- 


SELECTIOI^  17 


pends  the  vital  question  of  water  supply  and  drainage.  A  local 
elevation  or  an  easy  slope  is  perhaps  preferable  to  level  ground, 
although  the  latter  is  reasonably  safe  from  the  menace  of  drain- 
age from  outside  sources.  It  is  better  that  your  lot  should  drain 
into  your  neighbor's  than  his  into  yours.  The  local  hollow  is 
bad  in  many  ways :  everything  flows  into  it ;  it  is  naturally  damp 
and,  being  more  or  less  cut  off  from  the  winds,  is  open  to  the 
invasion  of  frosts.  The  too  steep  grade,  however,  is  a  thing 
to  be  avoided  on  general  principles,  as  there  is  a  tendency  to 
washouts  in  all  your  surface  contours — ^gardens,  grass  plots, 
drives,  walks  and  the  like.  The  climb  involved  in  such  ap- 
proaches may  become  a  hardship ;  and  if  one  purposes  to  remove 
to  such  property  later  in  life,  the  objection  is  doubled. 

Another  thing  as  regards  land  contours  is  the  general  ob- 
jection to  high  land  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  in  any  other 
direction  than  the  north.  Land  sloping  toward  the  south  or 
southeast  is,  under  ordinary  conditions,  the  best  that  can  be  had. 
Of  course,  locality  has  much  to  do  with  this,  as  well  as  the  direc- 
tion of  prevailing  winds,  and  as  these  last  play  a  very  important 
part  in  the  summer  problem  they  should  be  borne  in  mind. 
Although  local  conditions  may  vary  with  different  localities, 
the  location  and  influence  of  the  sun  is  the  same  wherever  one 
may  go.  With  this  to  consider  it  is  natural  that  the  living-room 
of  the  house  should  be  so  located  as  to  avoid  the  hot  sun  of  a 
summer  afternoon:  hence  the  outlook  is  best  toward  the  east  or 
southeast.  Now,  of  course,  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  one 
will  find  a  type  of  house  embodying  all  the  choicest  points  of 
the  ideal  condition,  but  the  vital  things  should  be  insisted  upon; 
one  may  perhaps  jockey  a  little  with  the  rest. 

Water  supply  and  drainage  should  always  be  considered 
together,  but  in  practice  they  should  be  kept  very  much  apart. 
The  ordinary  water  supply  of  the  country  is  the  dug  well,  and 
this  should  be  as  far  from  your  ultimate  drainage  as  is  possible. 
It  must  cast  a  suspicious  eye  on  the  barnyard,  pigpen  and  the 
outhouses,  and,  if  located  near,  should  by  all  means  be  well  above 
them  in  grade.  It  is  hard  to  determine,  without  actually  tear- 
ing everything  to  pieces,  in  just  what  direction  the  underground 
strata  pitches.  Therefore,  it  is  safer  to  give  any  source  of  con- 
tamination a  wide  berth.     In  cautioning  the  water  supply  to 


18  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

avoid  the  drainage,  we  are  regulating  the  latter  to  its  proper 
place,  yet  here  it  might  be  well  to  remember  that  your  neighbor 
has  a  water  supply  and  to  consider  this  in  your  general  rough 
solution  of  the  problem.  This  last  very  naturally  calls  one's 
attention  to  the  possibility  of  the  foreign  invasion  on  one's  own 
water  supply,  and  plenty  of  elbow  room  is  a  great  step  in  the 
direction  of  self  protection.  Right  here  it  might  be  well,  while 
considering  your  neighbor,  to  ascertain  what  local  nuisance  he 
is  fathering.  A  pigpen  in  the  direction  of  prevailing  winds 
might  be  highly  objectionable.  The  owner  may  say  what  he 
chooses  as  regards  this  topic,  but  he  cannot  alter  facts.  If  you 
intend  to  do  a  little  gardening,  the  presence  of  good  soil  and 
a  fairly  level  plot  is  important. 

Outside  of  a  rather  hasty  first  survey  of  the  land,  the  house 
itself  naturally  engages  our  immediate  attention.  We  will  as- 
sume that  the  exterior  is  fairly  pleasing  or  suggestive  of  possi- 
bilities; let  us  then  pass  to  the  interior,  as  this  is  the  key  to  all 
our  troubles. 

In  the  first  examination  two  things  should  be  borne  in  mind: 
the  general  visible  condition,  and  the  possibilities  of  the  gen- 
eral arrangement.  The  latter,  one  will  naturally  keep  in  mind 
while  determining  the  former.  This  first  survey  will  tell  you 
whether  your  house  walls  are  plumb,  or  nearly  so,  and  your  floors 
level.  By  the  swing  of  doors  over  the  floor  one  may  tell  some- 
thing of  this.  The  condition  of  the  doors  and  windows  and  the 
standing  finish  should  be  investigated,  and,  what  is  of  consider- 
able importance,  the  easy  tread  and  accessibility  of  the  stairs. 
This  last  is  really  vital,  inasmuch  as  the  extra  space  required  to 
make  easy  stairs  may  not  be  forthcoming. 

Right  here  it  may  be  well  to  introduce  a  few  simple  techni- 
calities regarding  stairs  in  general.  The  treads  of  a  flight  of 
stairs  are  the  steps  or  horizontal  members  on  which  we  tread; 
the  risers  are  the  vertical  members  between  the  treads.  Speak- 
ing in  figures,  we  say  that  the  rise  is  so  much  and  the  tread  so 
much;  in  this  way  we  definitely  define  the  stairs.  On  a  large 
scale,  the  height  from  floor  to  floor  is  called  the  "rise,"  and  the 
available  horizontal  space  the  "run"  of  the  flight.  Modern  cal- 
culation has  reduced  the  problem  of  easy  stairs  to  the  following 
rule:  the  product  of  the  rise  and  tread — in  inches — should  equal 


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There  is  nothing  just  like  a  bit  of  the  coast,  with   its  ever-changing  tides  and  salty- 
smell  of  the  sea.      Fresh  water  is  one  thing  and  salt  most  decidedly   another 


ready-made  apple  orchard  is  no  mean  consideration.     Although  it  may   not  mean  , 

self-supporting  industry,  it  surely  is  worth  while  for  home  supply  Pj 

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If  tlie  house   sets  true  and  straight   ami   tiic   roof  has  no  sag  to  it,   it  is  well  worth 
the  time  and  trouble  of  examination,   regardless  of  outside  covering 


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This   old    fisherman's   cottage   at   Martha's    Vineyard   suggests   clams   and  crabs    and 
lobsters,   to  say   nothing  of   the   motor-dory   and    fresh   fish 


SELECTION  19 


seventy  or  nearly  so.  It  has  been  found  by  experiment  that 
the  nearer  we  keep  to  the  rule  the  easier  the  stairs.  Like  all 
rules  this  one  is  not  infallible ;  within  it  there  is  a  happy  medium, 
from  which  in  either  direction  it  is  dangerous  to  travel  far.  The 
happy  medium  lies  in  a  tread  of  ten  inches  and  a  rise  of  seven — • 
that  is,  for  the  front  stairs  of  a  dwelling.  If  we  increase  the 
rise  we  decrease  the  tread,  and  vice  versa.  It  is  hardly  probable 
that  we  will  find  in  an  old  house,  stairs  as  easy  as  seven  by  ten 
— ^they  are  more  apt  to  be  steeper.  For  the  front  stairs  it  is 
not  best  that  they  be  steeper  than  eight  and  one-half  by  eight 
and  one-half.  The  fact  that  they  may  be  much  flatter  than 
seven  by  ten  is  so  improbable  that  one  need  hardly  consider  it. 

Now,  supposing  the  stairs  in  question  to  be  too  steep:  in 
their  correction  we  must,  in  reducing  the  rise,  increase  the  total 
number  of  risers,  and  consequently  the  total  number  of  treads. 
In  all  probability  the  depth  of  the  treads  will  be  increased  to 
come  somewhere  near  the  seven  by  ten  standard,  so  we  can  see 
at  once  that  the  total  run  of  the  tread  will  be  a  considerable  gain 
on  the  original  run.  Vital  question:  have  you  the  space  for 
the  extra  run? 

When  there  is  a  chance  for  a  new  and  independent  flight 
of  stairs,  which  will  be  the  most  used  medium  of  inter-story 
communication,  the  question  of  the  steep  original  is  not  so  vital. 

Then,  too,  there  is  the  condition  of  the  plastering.  If  one 
taps  it,  he  can  determine  whether  or  no  it  has  broken  away  from 
the  clinch.  Such  as  may  be  loose  will,  of  course,  have  to  be  re- 
placed. And  in  the  case  of  a  large  area,  and  old-fashioned  laths, 
it  is  best  to  tear  out  and  relath,  for  it  is  a  considerable  job  to  free 
the  intervals  in  old  lathing  from  plaster.  Old  plastering  was 
generally  better  than  our  own,  being  made,  for  the  greater  part, 
from  shell  lime.  Their  lathing  in  most  cases  was  inferior,  as  it 
did  not  give  a  uniform  chance  for  a  clinch  of  the  plastering. 

Look  out  for  the  sagging  or  saddle-back  roof — it  is  hard 
to  rectify.  In  its  settlement  it  has  exerted  a  tremendous 
pressure  against  the  outer  walls  of  the  house  and  forced  them 
outward.  If  the  house  walls  had  held,  there  would  have  been 
no  settlement  of  the  roof.  This  problem  is  so  difficult  that  it 
requires  practically  the  rebuilding  of  the  entire  structure.  Not 
only  have  the  walls  spread  at  the  plate  or  junction  with  the  roof, 


20  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

but  they  have  probably  pulled  away  from  the  nearer  floor  as 
well. 

Next  to  the  true  level  and  plumb  condition  of  the  structure, 
is  the  real  condition  of  the  main  timbers.  The  sill  first  of  all: 
It  stands  to  reason  that  if  this  is  badly  decayed  other  members 
which  have  depended  upon  it  for  support  have  settled;  the  first 
floor  timbers  are  aff'ected;  the  settling  studs  and  other  uprights 
have  either  dragged  other  members  with  them  or  allowed  them 
to  follow  of  their  own  weight.  The  same  general  result  may  be 
expected  if  the  ends  of  the  uprights  themselves  become  deteri- 
orated. Now  it  may  be  possible  that  the  evidences  of  decay  are 
not  visible,  in  which  case  a  knife  or  some  long  sharp  instru- 
ment should  be  used  from  both  inside  and  out,  where  practical. 
If  there  is  not  too  much  settlement,  lesser  timbers,  or  to  a  lim- 
ited extent  larger  timbers,  may  be  replaced,  and  with  less  ex- 
pense in  the  case  of  floor  timbers  or  girders,  which  are  more  or 
less  independent  of  the  outer  walls.  Often,  too,  a  slight  local 
settlement  may  be  rectified,  although  the  problem  is  rather 
hazardous;  involving  besides  the  first  expense,  others  which  may 
arise  from  it,  such  as  broken  plastering,  sagging  doors,  windows 
and  like  trouble. 

In  the  two  extremes  of  the  house — the  attic  and  the  cellar — 
one  may  look  for  trouble.  In  the  former  for  roof  conditions, 
such  as  bad  roof  timbers  and  boarding,  and  a  leaky  roof. 
Naturally  the  latter  condition  has  done  more  or  less  damage  to 
the  house  interior;  the  wetting  of  woodwork  has  induced  decay, 
or  that  of  plastering,  a  general  weakening  of  the  same.  It  may 
be  that  while  the  present  condition  of  the  roof  covering  is  well 
enough,  some  previous  state  may  have  eff'ected  the  damage  above 
stated,  so  that  it  is  well  to  look  for  evidence  in  any  case.  As 
to  the  roof  boards — are  they  in  condition  to  hold  new  shingles? 
This  naturally  suggests  a  point  which  is  vital  in  considering  the 
reconstruction  problem  of  the  old  house.  While  an  old  bit  of 
construction  may  hold  together  if  undisturbed,  having  become 
from  long  association  of  parts  and  equal  conditions  of  deteriora- 
tion, as  one  mass,  it  is  often  a  question  whether  or  not  it  will 
hear  any  attempt  at  rebuilding,  without  great  weakening,  or 
even  destruction. 

As  to  the  cellar: — apart  from  offering  an  excellent  chance 


SELECTION  21 


to  ascertain  the  condition  of  the  floor  timbers,  it  is  frequently 
the  source  of  dampness.  The  question  in  such  case  is  one  of 
origin.  Is  the  cellar  so  poorly  ventilated  as  to  effect  this? 
Does  it  find  its  way  through  the  cellar  walls  or  is  it  local?  This 
last  condition  is  often  serious  enough  to  make  the  abandonment 
of  the  whole  thing  advisable.  It  is  not  best  to  have  a  well  in 
the  cellar,  but  if  your  soil  will  permit  of  drainage  it  can  be  filled 
up.  A  spring,  however,  is  a  different  thing.  Better  waste  no 
further  time  with  such  a  problem,  unless  the  nuisance  be  small 
and  the  slope  of  the  land  sufficient  to  carry  a  drain  under  the 
house  wall:  then  clap  a  concrete  bottom  on  the  cellar.  Unless 
the  house  appeals  to  you  very  strongly,  it  will  hardly  warrant 
this  expense. 

Not  to  be  overlooked  are  the  chimneys.  They  may  hide 
untold  evils — evils  which  may  mean  the  total  destruction  of  the 
house.  This  consideration  is  by  far  the  more  uncertain  in  a 
house  that  has  stood  idle,  and  wherein  the  masonry  may  have 
had  a  chance  for  great  deterioration  since  it  was  last  used.  The 
entire  rebuilding  of  a  chimney  under  the  usual  conditions  attend- 
ing old  work  makes  it  an  expensive  job,  and  yet,  when  the  flues 
are  of  considerable  size,  as  is  common  in  the  majority  of  old 
houses,  one  may  get  over  the  difficulty  by  introducing  a  circular 
metal  flue  and  filling  in  about  it  with  concrete.  Of  course,  it 
is  understood  that  alterations  are  of  two  kinds — ^vital  and  merely 
convenient.  The  chimney  is  decidedly  of  the  former:  one  can 
tell  much  of  its  condition  in  the  attic  and  cellar,  where  the 
masonry  is  exposed.  A  pointed  iron  or  often  a  good  umbrella 
stick,  will  determine  whether  the  brickwork  is  in  a  soft  condi- 
tion or  not.  When  soft  bricks  have  been  used,  they  are  apt  to 
have  suffered  much  from  the  invasion  of  water,  and  will  some- 
times crumble  at  the  touch. 

Having  obtained  a  general  idea  of  the  interior,  we  may  pass 
on  to  the  exterior.  As  a  general  rule  old  houses  were  set  too 
low:  dampness  and  many  of  the  evils  of  decayed  sills  have  orig- 
inated from  this  source.  If  your  problem  is  one  of  these,  will 
the  structure  stand  raising  a  foot  or  more?  Sills  must  be  rea- 
sonably sound  to  do  this  without  considerable  expense.  Perhaps 
a  simple  area  and  larger  cellar  windows  may  solve  the  problem. 

Right  here  it  might  be  well  to  state  that  much  of  the  old 


22  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

seasoned  look  may  have  to  be  sacrificed  in  making  the  necessary 
repairs.  Is  it  the  weather-beaten  effect,  or  the  general  design 
that  pleases  you?  Weathering  may  not  necessarily  have  led  to 
decay.  Often  such  effects  may  be  preserved.  Then,  too,  it 
may  involve  more  expense  to  repair  a  comparatively  complete 
and  satisfactory  design,  than  to  convert  a  sound  example  not  so 
pleasing. 

Nearby  trees  are  often  valuable  to  the  general  scheme  and 
serve  more  than  any  other  thing  to  relieve  the  sameness  of  an 
otherwise  barren  composition.  Their  shade,  too,  excels  all  arti- 
ficial contrivances.  And  yet  they  should  not  be  too  closely  set 
to  the  house  as  they  may  induce  dampness,  and  if  overhanging 
the  roof,  the  decay  of  roof  covering  and  gutters.  So  do  not 
deceive  yourself  by  such  a  leafy  delusion:  you  may  be  obliged 
to  sacrifice  a  pet  ideal  to  gain  the  healthful  conditions  of  light 
and  air. 

Should  your  roof  shingles  be  old  or  moss  covered,  make  it 
a  point  to  inspect  the  attic  after  a  heavy  rain.  And  remember, 
too,  that  a  new  roof  and  wall  covering  does  not  mean  that  what 
it  hides  is  of  necessity  sound,  but  if  the  structure  be  plumb  and 
true,  the  frame  cannot  be  so  very  far  gone. 

If  you  have  discovered  that  your  interior  is  insufficiently 
lighted,  study  your  exterior  to  discover  whether  you  can  correct 
this  without  sacrifice  to  the  design.  The  bay  and  the  mullioned 
window  are  not  features  of  the  simple  Colonial  design,  although 
the  square  bay  was  frequently  used  in  shop  fronts,  and  in 
England  the  three-sided  bay.  Sometimes  the  bay  may  perhaps 
be  used,  but  it  almost  requires  the  overhanging  second  story — 
this  depends  on  the  local  style  and  the  amount  of  blank  wall  sur- 
rounding it.  Colonial  work  was  generally  sparing  as  to  glass, 
and  windows  were  seldom  crowded. 

The  foregoing  seems  at  first  glance  to  take  much  into  con- 
sideration at  the  very  beginning,  but  this  is  best  if  it  can  be  done. 
One  should  have  a  general  idea  of  probable  alterations,  both  of 
house  and  grounds,  even  at  this  stage.  It  is  largely  a  question 
whether  certain  desired  things  are  possible  or  not.  The  ques- 
tion of  outbuildings  should  be  given  passing  consideration  as 
well  as  the  house.  Their  condition  and  practicability,  if  existing, 
especially  in  reference  to  their  sanitary  condition  and  location. 


Here   is    a   good   type   of   the    late    Colonial    influence.      It    has    been    tampered    with 
somewhat,   but   has   also  been   kept   in    fairly   good   repair 


¥1R 


SfSMMiaMtlMSISM^MaMSISMM^M^MSMSMSMaMaSJ^^ 


If  you   can   draw  back   from  the   highway  and  at  the  same  time   add  to   your   view, 
without  too  much  effort,   it  is  very  much  worth  while 


Along  the  great  river  highways  one  finds  many  an  early  settlement,  nestled  close  to 
the    water's    edge.      Its    past    industry    has    vanished    and    for    this    reason    let    us 

investigate 


feMaSMeJcUeMSJSJSJSMSJM&fSMSJeMSMSjaiSMSM^ja^M^ 


SELECTION  28 


means  much.  If  they  are  yet  to  be  built,  their  possible  location 
should  be  determined  roughly. 

And  now  as  to  the  general  business  method  of  procedure. 
First  provide  yourself  with  a  pointed  piece  of  iron  about  a  foot 
long  for  the  purpose  of  sounding  beams,  masonry,  etc.,  also  a 
lantern  or  pocket  lamp.  Assuming  that  your  first  survey  is 
satisfactory,  you  should  get  a  refusal  of  the  property  for  a  couple 
of  weeks  at  least,  in  order  to  have  the  title  looked  into.  For 
this  purpose  get  a  lawyer,  unless  of  course,  you  are  an  expert. 
In  any  event,  the  local  lawyer,  who  probably  has  such  things  at 
his  finger  ends,  is  perhaps  safer.  If  the  title  be  not  clear,  and 
cannot  be  rectified  without  time  and  expense,  better  drop  it; 
future  legal  tangles  are  imdesirable  and  altogether  too  near 
home. 

When  the  question  of  title  is  settled,  make  another  inspec- 
tion and  bring  a  competent  carpenter  along.  By  this  time  you 
probably  have  a  rough  sketch  plan  of  your  first  alteration.  Do 
not  let  him  run  away  with  himself  and  with  the  idea  that  he  is 
to  find  all  the  fault  he  can.  Let  him  understand  that  if  there 
is  too  much  to  be  done  you  will  not  purchase.  In  any  event  do 
not  commit  yourself  to  the  limit  of  what  you  will  spend.  Give 
him  to  understand  that  he  is  to  present  his  figures  and  opinions 
that  you  may  think  them  over.  As  to  the  price  of  the  property, 
it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  home  is  worth  more  to  you 
than  an  investment;  also  that  the  property  should  have  some- 
thing to  back  it  up.  Should  you  ever  wish  to  put  it  on  the 
market,  it  should  be  practical. 

In  getting  a  refusal,  you  should  have  a  binder.  This  is 
a  simple  document  for  the  owner  or  agent  to  sign,  in  which  he 
acknowledges  the  payment  of  a  small  sum  (perhaps  from  five 
to  twenty  dollars,  as  the  case  may  be),  for  which  consideration 
he  agrees  to  give  a  refusal  of  the  property  in  question  for  a 
specified  time.  Then  should  you  decide  to  take  the  property 
at  the  end  of  this  time  the  deposit  shall  be  considered  as  a  part 
of  the  purchase  price.  Do  not,  however,  commit  yourself,  in 
writing  or  otherwise,  to  the  price  asked,  as  you  may  find,  before 
you  are  through  with  your  investigations,  that  it  is  too  high. 

While  your  lawyer  is  drawing  up  the  deed,  try  to  ascertain 
from  the  abutting  property  owners  whether  the  existing  bounds 


24  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

are  right ;  if  so,  they  should  be  willing  to  sign  a  plan  and  it  would 
be  well  to  get  a  surveyor  to  make  a  simple  outline  plot.  Have 
the  abutters  sign  it  to  the  effect  that  the  bounds,  as  shown  on 
the  plan,  where  abutting  their  property,  are  correct.  Use  a 
dark  ink  for  signatures  and  sign  lastly  yourself,  in  order  to 
show  your  good  faith.  Take  one  or  two  blueprints,  and  file  the 
original  tracing  in  the  proper  place  with  the  record  of  deed. 
Having  completed  this  thoroughly,  you  have  the  best  start 
toward  a  home. 

And  now  you  are  ready  to  take  up  the  more  serious  consid- 
eration of  practical  restoration  as  a  property  holder. 


Chapter  Tii^o 
PLJJVN/NG 


THE  so-called  "Colonial"  plan  is  in  the  earliest  exam- 
ples a  tradition  of  the  mother  country.  Later  it  be- 
came more  independent,  yet  still  holding  fast  to  the 
skirts  of  the  parent  style;  finally  letting  go  altogether. 
This  deviation  became  possible,  in  work  of  the  less  pretentious  or- 
der, through  the  passing  of  the  English  trained  craftsman,  whose 
descendants  had  not  before  them  continually  those  instructive 
examples  of  old  English  work,  for  it  must  be  known  that  the 
architect  of  the  mass  of  our  old  houses  was  also  the  carpenter, 
and  that  such  conditions  were  just  what  has  given  the  dwelling 
its  individual  and  sympathetic  touch. 

We  do  not  aim  in  this  work  to  give  a  history  of  the  style,  in- 
teresting as  it  would  undoubtedly  prove.  We  may  delve  lightly 
beneath  the  surface,  but  only  to  such  depths  as  our  needs  re- 
quire. It  must  be  borne  in  mind  however,  that  the  earliest 
English  cottages  were  of  an  extremely  simple  and  primitive 
character,  about  two-thirds  of  which  were  used  to  house  the 
cattle.     Being  thus  largely  houses  for  stock,  they  had  the  lower 

25 


26  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

floor  level  with,  or  just  below,  the  ground.  Important  in  gov- 
erning the  plan  were  the  oxen.  A  yoke  standing  in  the  tie-up 
occupy  about  eight  feet  in  breadth,  and  as  each  ox  always 
occupied  the  same  position  in  the  team,  and  as  the  ordinary  Eng- 
lish team  of  those  days  consisted  of  two  yoke,  the  oxen  were 
for  obvious  reasons  confined  to  a  section  by  themselves.  This 
section  was  called  a  bay,  and  was  about  sixteen  feet  wide.  In 
the  frame  this  bay  was  naturally  emphasized  by  an  upright 
post  in  each  corner  and  in  the  earliest  examples  this  post  was 
made  from  a  curved  tree  trunk  and  extended  on  into  the  roof 
as  a  rafter,  so  as  to  form  a  crude  Gothic  arch.  These  arches, 
which  leaned  slightly  inward,  were  called  crucks,  and  were  the 
big  sticks  in  the  upright  construction,  occurring  as  we  have 
already  stated  at  the  junction  of  upright  partitions,  just  as  the 
sill,  girt  and  plate  performed  a  similar  office  for  the  horizontal 
partitions  or  floors. 

While  the  earliest  houses  consisted  of  only  one  room  or  bay, 
they  soon  came  to  have  several,  and,  as  in  all  buildings,  the 
groping  for  more  room  resulted  in  the  inevitable  addition;  in 
this  case  it  was  the  outshot,  the  ancestor  of  our  own  lean-to  or 
attached  shed. 

After  a  time  the  house  evolved  itself  into  our  present-day 
lines:  vertical  framing  and  walls  and  an  independently  framed 
roof.  We  cannot  give  any  definite  plan  as  a  type,  as  various 
localities  and  craftsmen  translated  their  inspirations  in  differ- 
ent ways  and  consequently  got  different  results.  And  at  this 
point  it  is  well  for  us  to  emphasize  this  fact: — English  crafts- 
men, from  various  parts  of  the  mother  country,  brought 
with  them  to  these  shores  the  usages  and  traditions  of  their 
individual  localities  which  were  expanded  and  developed  by 
their  successors,  and  this  has  naturally  produced  a  series  of  local 
types,  often  similar,  yet  bearing  the  stamp  of  individuality  and 
localism — do  not  forget  this,  localisjn. 

It  may  perhaps  have  occurred  to  the  reader  that  the  con- 
struction of  the  early  plan  had  much  to  do  with  the  arrange- 
ment of  rooms  and  their  sizes,  and  such  is  the  case.  Early 
interior  partitions  were  thin  and  comparatively  light,  being  of 
matched  upright  boards  called  wainscot.  When  first  used  they 
simply  accommodated  themselves  to  the  spacing  of  the  big  up- 


^b<^<^<^^i5i^k<^€^k^^^<Sb^(^<^^<3ft)(^<^b<^b<^<^<^<^(^ 


The  Peter  Tufts  House,   Medford,   Mass.      Built  between    1677   and    1680.     Wrongly 
called   "Cradock"   House.     An  early  type  of  gambrel   roof.      Composite  of  "C"   and 

"F"   plans 


House  at  Windsor,   Vt.     Designed  and  built  by  Asher  IJenjainin  during  the  close  of 
the   eighteenth   century.      The   chimney   tops   arc    new.     "I"   plan 


qpqpgpgpgpqpqp  qpqpqpgp  qpqpqp  qpgtsgpejpegpqgejg  gpejpqpqp 


One  of  the   Ellsworth   houses  at  Windsor,   Vt.    (about    1750).      This   preserves   the 
tradition  of  the  Pre-Georgian   overhang  on  each  story.      Modified   "I"  plan 


An    old    "IJ"    i)lan    house    showing    a    "stack    of    chimneys."      In    the    old    times, 
"chimney"  meant  flue,  and  in  the  topping  out  each  flue  was  apt  to  show  as  a  unit 


PLANNING  27 


rights  or  posts,  which  were  essential  units  in  the  general  con- 
struction. Later,  when  the  plan  had  developed  somewhat  and 
every  house  boasted  a  chimney,  the  design  revolved  about  that 
and  the  construction  accommodated  itself  more  or  less  to  it. 

The  very  earliest  form  of  the  fireplace  consisted  of  a  raised 
hearth  in  the  center  of  the  building,  and  on  this  the  fire  was 
built  and  the  smoke  escaped  as  best  it  could  through  a  hole  in 
the  roof  above.  Later  it  was  carried  to  the  outer  wall,  and  it  is 
these  two  arrangements  that  govern  our  commonest  plan;  with 
the  English  chimney  tax  the  former  was  naturally  the  most 
popular,  as  it  was  possible  to  get  more  out  of  one  chimney. 
Thus  with  the  chimney  as  an  important  fixture,  we  can  readily 
see  that  it  governed  and  dominated  the  plan,  a  fact  of  which  we 
should  not  lose  sight. 

It  must  be  understood  at  the  start  that  there  are  compara- 
tively few  houses  that  remain  in  the  condition  of  their  original 
building — more  particularly  in  the  few  surviving  early,  and 
the  later  small,  structures.  The  simple  needs  of  a  beginning 
were  often  succeeded  by  a  demand  for  expansion,  and  yet  where 
the  purse-strings  were  short,  it  is  remarkable  how  little  room 
even  our  grandparents  could  get  along  with,  although  encum- 
bered with  a  large  and  growing  family.  The  traditions  of  liv- 
ing in  1620  followed  far  beyond  1800.  As  a  general  thing 
these  additions,  or  at  least  the  later  ones,  were  out  of  harmony, 
and  simply  impossible  from  the  standpoint  of  good  planning; 
the  tradition  of  gaining  space  did  not  allow  for  eccentricity; 
building  was  a  tried-out  formula.  We  hope  to  be  able,  in  the 
course  of  this  book,  to  show  in  a  general  way  the  ear-marks  of 
various  periods,  so  that  the  reader  may  determine  for  himself 
the  various  stages  of  construction. 

The  first  floor  plan  is  the  dominant  plan  and  the  second  story 
it  made  to  accommodate  itself  to  it.  Generally  it  was  a  dupli- 
cate of  the  first.  That  this  was  not  always  successful,  at  least 
from  our  standpoint,  we  shall  see  later.  We  shall  therefore 
consider  our  several  types  from  a  first-floor  standpoint.  In 
Fig.  1  we  have  shown  several  common  types  of  plan,  to  which 
it  may  be  well  to  refer.  But  before  proceeding  to  this  it  might 
be  well  to  state  that  the  plan  was  an  expression  of  a  mode  of 
life,  and  that  such  has  changed  constantly  with  the  ages.     Be- 


28 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


cause  our  ancestors  chose  to  live,  eat  and  even  sleep  in  one 
room,  does  not  argue  that  they  were  not  as  worthy,  or  that  they 
suffered  hardships  in  comparison  with  other  people  of  their 
time.     If  we  take  some  of  the  greatest  names  of  our  early  his- 


Fig.  1 — Common  types  of  Colonial  first  floor  plans,  showing  the  general  arrange- 
ment without  regard  to  scale.  In  "I"  and  "J"  the  length  of  the  rooms  is  gen- 
erally  with   the    front.    The   dotted    lines    suggest   common    variations    of   ells,   etc., 

found  in  some  examples 

tory  and  examine  the  inventory  of  their  estates,  we  will  often 
find  a  bed  set  up  in  the  kitchen;  naturally  this  is  more  common 
in  the  north.  It  is,  then,  this  difference  in  the  times,  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  house  plan,  that  we  must  recognize,  and  our  prob- 
lem is  to  adapt  this  heritage  to  our  own  needs  with  the  best 
advantage. 


PLANNING  29 


In  the  plans  already  referred  to  we  have  designated  the 
kitchen  by  K;  next  to  the  chimney  it  is  the  important  unit. 
Diagrams  A,  B,  C  and  D  are  the  earliest  forms.  Of  these 
we  have  noted  A  in  the  Eastern  Massachusetts,  B  in  the  Con- 
necticut plantation,  C  in  New  York  State  and  D  in  Rhode 
Island.  They  will  probably  be  found  elsewhere,  they  or  their 
variations;  D,  however,  we  believe  to  be  a  localism  about  Provi- 
dence, R.  I.  C  is  also  common  in  the  South.  These  plans 
were  of  the  period  prior  to  about  1700,  and  with  the  exception 
of  the  last,  were  in  high  favor  at  a  much  later  date.  They  are 
boiled-down  experiences,  hard  to  better.  D,  from  its  vast 
masonry  end,  would  have  offset  the  saving  effected  by  the  more 
economic  handling  of  wood,  and  yet  this  plan  was  probably  a 
popular  one  in  the  old  countrj%  being  one  type  of  the  two-bay 
and  outshot  plan.  B,  which  was  treated  sometimes  as  one  story 
and  an  attic,  with  kitchen  in  the  lean-to  (or  outshot)  ;  some- 
times as  two  stories  over  the  two  front  rooms  and  a  story  and  a 
half  over  the  kitchen;  and  finally,  as  a  simple  two-story  struc- 
ture, was  perhaps  most  popular  of  early  northern  types  and  in 
its  last  form  continued  a  favorite  long  after  1700.  It  is  readily 
seen  that  A  is  its  ancestor,  and  that  repeated  enforced  additions 
to  the  former,  resulted  in  the  latter  as  an  original. 

Type  E  is  similar  to  B,  but  it  was  frequently  larger  and  in 
such  cases  the  chimney  was  very  likely  farther  to  the  rear,  lessen- 
ing the  size  of  the  kitchen  and  dividing  an  otherwise  through 
hallway  and  separating  front  and  back  stairs.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  trace  the  evolution  of  C  to  the  later  H,  nor  through  F  to 
J.  I  is  a  good  commonsense  plan,  economical  in  chimneys. 
Sometimes  the  kitchen  eliminated  the  rear  portion  of  the  hall, 
making  a  larger  room.  This  arrangement  was  a  somewhat 
earlier  version  of  the  type  and  seems  to  have  evolved  itself  from 
H.  J  was  the  most  palatial  layout  and  was  particularly  well 
adapted  to  the  wooden  structure  with  brick  ends.  When  this 
plan  is  used  with  the  hip  roof  it  does  not  look  well;  a  chimney 
seldom  looks  well  when  it  leaves  the  roof  at  its  lowest  point. 
J  is  but  the  doubling  up  of  C,  and  we  know*  examples  which 
have  become  type  J  in  a  series  of  evolutions  from  the  earlier 
form.  With  the  Southern  mansion,  it  is  usually  a  plan  after 
I  or  J,  with  modifications  or  elaborations — at  all  events  a  bal- 


30  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

anced  plan  with  the  door  in  the  center  and  the  through  hall. 
In  the  more  pretentious  schemes  the  central  motive  is  flanked 
by  semi-detached  wings,  and  the  piazza  is  generally  the  full 
height  of  the  house,  suggestive  of  Classic  design,  if  not  abso- 
lutely so  detailed.  About  1800  arrived  the  Classic,  or,  more 
properly,  the  Greek  Revival.  Its  influence  on  building  was 
marked,  even  in  the  case  of  the  type  of  Georgian  which  fol- 
lowed it  and  became  its  contemporary,  and  whose  plan  is  shown 
in  G,  but  it  was  not  a  happy  source  of  inspiration  for  domestic 
architecture  and  it  left  little  that  was  not  ugly  and  inconsistent. 
Generally  its  plan  was  type  J  or  I,  but  sometimes  it  veered 
towards  G.  This  latter  plan  was  the  last  of  the  marked 
Georgian  influence,  and  the  kitchen  Avas  usually  in  an  ell  in  the 
rear,  not  shown  in  our  sketch.  It  was  extremely  popular  for 
the  simpler  dwellings  which  followed  it  and  which  adopted  modi- 
fied details  from  the  Greek  Revival  in  an  effort  towards  econ- 
omy. It  might  even  be  said  to  be  a  merging  of  the  two  styles; 
it  is  still  used  in  sections  where  the  influence  of  the  architect  has 
not  given  us  a  mushroom  settlement  with  a  1,  2,  3,  4  and  repeat, 
as  a  basis  of  variety. 

In  the  following  consideration  of  the  old  house  we  shall  speak 
of  it  largely  as  regards  a  building  of  wood.  This,  however,  will 
not  exclude  brick  and  stone;  our  principles  govern  them  all. 
Wood  was  the  first  material,  and  its  constructional  possibilities 
and  limitations  gave  birth  to  design.  Its  walls  were  largely 
of  brick  and  frequently  stone  was  an  accessory.  Our  first  care 
is  to  see  what  the  old-time  craftsman  did ;  our  second,  to  reason 
out  what  he  would  naturally  have  done  with  some  of  our  modern 
problems,  considering  his  traditions  and  his  limitations. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  sixteen-foot  bay  and  the  rea- 
son for  this  particular  dimension;  when  the  reason  for  this  had 
passed,  as  far  as  the  house  was  concerned,  its  tradition  remained 
but  the  dimensions  became  flexible,  and  in  our  common  houses 
the  size  of  the  room  was  generally  reduced.  With  the  installa- 
tion of  the  central  chimney,  a  bay  or  division  of  a  different  size 
was  required.  Judging  by  such  old  examples  as  we  have  noted, 
we  may  establish  a  certain  proportion  between  the  room  and 
the  chimney  bays.  Approximately  the  chimney  bay  was  from 
two-thirds  to  three-quarters  the  size  of  the  room  bay,  the  latter 


"Grumblethorp,"    Germantown,    Pa.      Showing   a   slight    modification    of   central    door 
arrangement.      Variation   of   the    "F"   plan 


'Stenton,"    Germantown,    Pa. 


Built  by   James   Logan,    Secretary   to   Wm.    Penn,    in 
1727.     "I"  plan 


^IfedfeGlfed&  dfedfedfe  db6ifedbd&  dbdjaclfe  d&(3&d&GlE>  d&d&G!&  d&  d&d&dfe 


^ 


The    Nelson    House,    Yorktown,    Va.       A    relic   of  past    Southern   grandeur.        Note    the 
enclosed    fore-yard    and    also    the    servants'    quarters.         "I"    plan 


.\   simple  example  of  the  well-known   Southern  type,  with  the  two-storied  piazza.       One 
could   li'tc   in    a   house   like   this.        "T"     plan 


qpgpgp  gp  gpqpgp  qpgpejpqp  qpgpqp  qpgpejpqp  q^jqpq^  qpejpqpqp 


PLANNING  31 


proportion  generally  applying  to  the  older  houses.  When  the 
chimney  was  no  longer  a  central  feature  and  the  stairs  and  hall- 
way reigned  in  its  stead,  the  proportion  does  not  seem  to  have 
changed,  because  the  stairs,  which  had  first  been  made  to  accom- 
modate themselves  to  the  chimney  size,  became  established,  and 
once  again  a  regulation  of  width  was  fixed.  When  the  hall 
bisected  the  house,  the  stairs  were  built  with  a  straight  run, 
and  in  some  of  the  less  elaborate  examples  the  hall  bay  was 
about  one-half  the  room  bay.  All  this  but  leads  to  one  thing: 
a  means  of  establishing  a  unit  of  design — the  greatest  comjnon 
divider  of  the  parts  involved.  Therefore,  if  the  hall  be  eight 
feet  and  the  flanking  rooms  twelve,  then  our  unit  is  four.  One 
must  not  be  misled  by  the  lesser  partitions  which  do  not  con- 
nect posts;  it  is  the  divisions  by  the  heavy  cross-beams  which 
we  are  to  consider  as  our  basis,  when  they  exist;  in  later  styles, 
where  they  should  exist.  The  advantage  of  the  unit  will  become 
apparent  when  we  are  planning  for  modem  improvements,  as 
it  is  one  the  designer  would  most  naturally  use,  and  it  gives  the 
layman  a  mathematical  substitute  for  the  constructive  limita- 
tions of  the  old-time  carpenter.  In  academic  planning,  the 
square  is  the  unit  on  which  the  composition  is  constructed;  in 
Classic  design,  the  diameter  of  the  base  of  the  column,  with  its 
subdivisions,  was  the  scale  of  all  dimensions.  Of  course  the 
old-time  craftsman  did  not  work  with  mathematical  precision, 
nor  did  he  reason  with  himself  regarding  units  and  squares, 
but  custom  and  constructive  limitations  served  as  a  substitute; 
what  he  got  was  generally  good. 

Having  established  the  unit  for  one  dimension,  we  must  de- 
termine that  of  the  other  so  that  we  can  work  in  both  directions. 
(See  Fig.  3  and  4).  Naturally  this  may  not  work  out  abso- 
lutely to  the  inch,  but  we  must  make  it  fit  as  well  as  we  can. 
If,  of  our  two  dimensions,  one  be  about  two-thirds  of  the  other, 
then  our  unit — the  greatest  common  divider — is  one-half  the 
smaller  and  one-third  the  larger.  Supposing  that  the  one  room 
be  ten  and  the  other  fourteen  feet,  our  unit  would  be  four  feet 
ten  inches,  a  compromise  between  a  division  into  halves  of  the 
one  and  thirds  of  the  other.  It  is  well  that  the  unit  be  of  suf- 
ficient size  to  accommodate  a  window  and  about  its  own  width 
besides.     Our  four  feet  ten  does  this  nicely  and  with  room  to 


32  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

spare;  four  feet  alone  would  answer.  It  is  somewhere  around 
these  two  figures  that  we  may  roughly  calculate  our  unit  to  be. 
It  is  best  that  our  unit  be  small ;  if  by  chance  it  be  large,  it  should 
be  halved,  and  in  such  case  the  other  unit  should  be  halved  as 
well. 

If  one  has  a  house  that  has  been  mutilated  or  so  added  to  as 
to  disguise  it  thoroughly,  the  problem  is  of  course  to  eliminate 
the  objectionable  side,  whether  it  be  in  its  looks  or  its  utility. 
As  old  design  is  a  localism,  there  should  exist  somewhere  not 
far  oiF,  some  duplicate  which  might  serve  to  show  what  the 
original  was.  However,  it  is  not  always  a  question  of  restora- 
tion, but  of  replanning,  yet  the  original  method  is  good  to  have. 
Generally  the  old  craftsman  built  house  after  house,  practically 
the  same,  excepting  where  now  and  then  the  usual  formula  did 
not  exactly  fill  the  bill.  In  making  his  moldings  he  used  a  plane 
or  a  combination  of  planes,  and  the  careful  student  can  often 
trace  the  same  details  through  a  wide  range.  Sometimes  these 
planes  were  home-made,  differing  from  others.  Being  good 
tools,  they  were  in  any  event  handed  down  to  do  the  work  of  the 
following  generation,  which,  while  producing  different  forms, 
used  the  same  details.  Now  and  then,  too,  details  varied,  but 
one  should  not  be  thus  led  astray  in  passing  on  a  family  like- 
ness between  two  buildings. 

Our  forefathers  made  their  additions  in  the  form  of  the 
lean-to  or  the  ell,  with  a  frankly  new  roof  problem.  Generally 
this  latter  was  one  story  high,  and  was  frequently  added  to  in 
turn.  Often  this  last  made  an  effective  and  picturesque  com- 
position; often,  too,  it  did  not.  With  the  country  problem  it 
has  its  advantages;  the  one  level  saves  stairs.  The  proper  way 
to  add  to  an  old  house  is  after  the  manner  of  its  builders,  and 
these  methods,  if  we  are  allowed  to  reiterate,  we  must  study. 
The  modem  carpenter,  if  left  to  himself,  will  work  after  his 
own  fashion,  and  this  is  what  we  particularly  wish  to  avoid.  It 
is,  however,  not  his  methods,  but  his  results  that  are  objec- 
tionable. If  one  would  be  thorough,  the  general  history  and 
the  public  records  often  afford  information  which  is  of  value. 
To  know  what  intercourse  our  immediate  locality  had  with  those 
adjoining  it,  gives  us  the  probable  range  of  our  localism  and  the 
part  of  the  mother  country  from  which  the  early  craftsman 


PLANNING 


33 


came,  gives  us  something  to  fall  back  on,  in  cases  of  the  earlier 
work. 

In  Fig.  2  we  show  a  development  of  the  B  plan;  the  oldest 
son  has  married  and  brought  home  his  wife — whence  the  ell.  This 
is  an  actual  plan,  taken  from  the  original.     To  illustrate  the 


Fig.  2 — An  example  of  a  later  development  of  type  "B"  plan  in  which  the  ell 
has  been  added  upon  the  marriage  of  the  eldest  son.  Also  its  possible  alteration 
and  elaboration.  The  dotted  lines  on  the  old  plan  show  the  arrangement  of  the 
sills,  girts,  plates  and  cross-ties  of  each  floor  plan  with  their  relation  to  the 
posts    or   uprights    into   which   they    were    framed    and    pinned 


method  of  framing,  the  posts  and  their  horizontal  components 
are  shown,  and  their  government  of  the  plan  is  at  once  seen. 
We  have  also  shown  a  possible  modern  adaptation  of  the  plan, 
and  it  might  be  well  to  use  this  layout  in  explaining  our  method 
of  working  out  the  problem. 

The  older  part  of  the  house  is  fairly  modern  in  its  layout. 
In  the  pantry  system  we  would  save  steps  and  gain  shelf  room. 
By  turning  the  bedroom  and  parlor  into  one  room,  we  offer  what 
we  fancy  to  be  the  accepted  modem  notion  as  to  the  living- 
room.  In  this  way  we  are  meeting,  also,  the  demands  of  the 
old  times;  the  old-time  kitchen  was  generally  the  largest  room 
in  the  house,  and  in  Western  Connecticut  it  occupies  the  space 
of  our  new  living-room.     In  the  son's  ell  we  connect  the  wood- 


34  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

bins  (which  should  be  ventilated)  by  an  open  arcade  in  space 
stolen  from  the  kitchen.  The  den  or  library  occupies  the  re- 
mainder. Although  the  piazza  was  never  a  part  of  this  plan  in 
its  earliest  stages,  and  but  a  minor  consideration  in  its  later 
forms,  we  have  nevertheless  suggested  it  here  as  an  important 
detail ;  it  should  never  be  placed  across  the  front  unless  it  is  well 
proved  that  it  was  so  used.  The  front  elevation  is  generally  the 
best  effort  of  the  design  and  should  not  needlessly  be  disturbed; 
this  holds  good  in  all  Colonial  work.  With  the  ends,  however, 
it  is  different;  they  are  the  places  for  extensions.  The  early 
plan,  as  we  have  already  stated,  consisted  of  several  bays,  side 
by  side;  in  other  words  a  barn  of  greater  or  less  length  as  the 
case  might  be.  One  could  add  bays  at  the  ends  and  commit 
no  crime;  it  was  like  a  sectional  bookcase,  and  the  extension  was 
always  with  the  direction  of  the  roof  ridge.  Now  if  our  piazza 
had  been  less  important  and  in  the  rear,  we  could  make  it 
smaller,  but  it  must  have  utility.  Having  a  different  purpose 
than  the  adjoining  room,  we  consider  that  we  have  the  right  to 
alteration.  Alteration  gives  variety,  and  thus  we  have  util- 
ized our  hall  space  for  our  piazza.  As  the  old-time  carpenter 
would  have  framed  in  his  piazza  to  his  house,  we  may  very 
properly  consider  it  a  part  of  the  structure.  The  perspective 
view  from  the  east  includes  the  ell,  and  this  is  our  excuse  for 
omitting  the  piazza  here. 

Our  solution  of  the  problem  is  not  the  only  one ;  it  probably 
would  not  meet  all  requirements.  Perhaps  one  might  wish  to 
keep  the  ell  as  it  was,  make  the  dining-room  include  the  parlor 
and  enough  of  the  bedroom  to  center  the  fireplace,  using  the 
balance  of  the  bedroom  for  china,  service  and  a  built-in  buffet. 
The  living-room  could  occupy  the  entire  space  to  the  west  of 
the  chimney,  and  the  balance  of  the  old  kitchen  be  made  into  a 
new  staircase  hall,  arranged  to  tap  each  room  on  the  second 
story,  including  a  bath  in  the  ell. 

On  general  principles  it  is  not  advisable  to  remove  the  entire 
outer  wall  of  a  room  in  order  to  enlarge.  A  room  should  not 
be  partly  in  the  old  structure  and  partly  in  the  new ;  the  opening 
should  be  more  of  an  arch  or  a  square  opening,  interrupted  by 
posts,  while  the  new  room  is  complete  in  itself  and  counts  as 
such,  both  inside  and  out.     Further  than  this,  there  is  the  diffi- 


PLANNING 


85 


culty  attending  the  holding  up  of  the  wall  above,  owing  to  the 
low  stud  of  the  structure.  Normally  one  could  put  an  iron 
beam  under  the  girt  and  have  head-room  enough,  but  the  old 
house  had  its  ceiling  only  about  seven  feet  high,  and  the  girt 
dropped  some  three  or  four  inches  below  that.  The  girt  is  a 
considerable  stick,  but  if  unsupported  it  would  be  liable  to  sag, 
and  the  more  so  did  it  receive  the  weight  of  the  floor  as  well  as 
the  wall.  Of  course  a  truss  could  be  built  in  the  wall  above, 
but  it  would  mean  expense — the  whole  thing  is  contrary  to  the 
principles  of  good  construction. 

We  may  see  from  Fig.  1  that  the  first  extension  was  made 
at  the  rear  and  under  a  shed  or  continuation  of  the  old  roof. 
This  caused  little  disturbance  in  the  general  lines  and  was  eco- 
nomical. The  next  method  was  in  the  form  of  an  ell,  as  in  H  or 
in  Fig.  2,  in  which  the  new  structure  was  a  one-story  affair, 
commonly  set  against  the  two  stories  of  the  main  house ;  the  roof 
was  thus  independent  and  at  right  angles  to  the  main  roof. 
Simplicity  was  the  dominant  note,  and  little  quaint  features 
seldom  complicated  the  general  ensemble. 

We  have  spoken  of  a  unit  and  the  method  of  fixing  it.  In 
Figs.  3  and  4  we  show  its  application  to  practical  conditions. 
We  have  also  stated  that  the  divisions  may  not  be  found  to 
come  exactly.  This  matters  little,  as  it  gives  a  general  idea  and 
that  is  all  that  is  necessary.  They  form  a  convenient  basis  for 
the  preliminary  plan,  even  though  the  dimensions  may  have  to 


!     :     :  •     :  i  i 
; ;._j I      :      ; 

•     \  a  \  '■ 

\      '     '  : 

I      T"  i  "•      i  :      ;      : 

i  i     [  i  i     !  i     i  *  : 

SI  ..J..i...."H'-J ...].... 


I      :      ■      I      :  •>  :      i 

!      i  ^  i  I      i  I  i      I  i      i      i      i 


Fig.   3 — The    "B"   plan   as   divided  by   the  big  beams   and   showing  the   sub-divisions 

into   units;    also    indicating   the    most   plausible   ways    of    addition,   which   covers    as 

well  the  plan's  later   form  "E,"  which  has   the   same  framing 


36  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

be  changed  slightly  to  fit  our  interior  sizes  and  arrangements. 
The  best  method  of  procedure  is  to  lay  out  your  original  plan 
to  a  scale  of  one-eighth  of  an  inch  to  the  foot  and  black  in  the 
partitions  so  that  they  can  readily  be  seen  through  tracing  paper. 
Use  an  imperial  drawing  board  and  cheap  Bristol  board  for  the 
original,  and  some  thin  pencil  paper  for  the  rough  sketches; 
finished  drawings  can  be  made  on  tracing  cloth,  the  grease  first 
having  been  removed  from  the  dull  side  by  rubbing  with  chalk 
or  ironing  starch,  after  it  has  been  stretched  down.  Get  a  cheap 
T-square  and  a  forty-five  degree  triangle,  also  a  cheap  drawing- 
pen.  Place  your  old  plan  in  the  center  of  the  sheet  so  that  you 
may  have  plenty  of  room  around  it.  Lay  out  your  front  fences 
if  they  be  close  at  hand.  After  inking  in  your  plan,  lay  out 
your  field  of  units  as  suggested  in  Fig.  3,  extending  the  pattern 
over  the  entire  field  of  possible  extensions.  Ink  this  in  with 
strong  red  (use  waterproof  ink — black  and  carmine) .  Over 
this  one  can  make  freehand  studies  on  cheap  tracing  paper  and 
think  out  the  general  scheme  of  alterations. 

Now  we  think  that  the  reader  has  grasped  the  fact  that  the 
front  is  not  to  be  added  to  unless  there  be  authority  for  it;  a 
precedent  of  an  open  or  closed  porch,  or,  what  is  least  likely, 
a  piazza.  We  say  "least  likely"  because,  although  we  find  some 
which  are  excellent  in  themselves,  they  are  generally  later  than 
the  original  house  and  are  more  likely  to  destroy  some  important 
feature  for  the  older  structure  than  to  improve  it.  Then  too, 
we  are  getting  to  care  more  for  privacy,  on  account  of  which  a 
house  located  near  the  street  demands  that  we  retire  from  the 
front  of  it.  We  will  therefore  consider  the  rear  and  sides  of 
our  dwelling,  the  walls  to  which  we  may  more  properly  attach 
additions. 

First  the  B  plan:  In  A,  Fig.  3,  we  show  the  ell  (a)  after 
the  manner  of  Fig.  2.  The  portion  b  we  will  suppose  to  be  a 
less  important  addition — perhaps  a  shed.  The  roof  of  a  is  at 
right  angles  to  the  main  roof  and  may  or  may  not  intersect  it, 
according  to  the  height  of  both.  The  element  b  is,  in  turn,  at 
right-angles  with  a.  In  c  we  suggest  a  wooA-shed  piazza  of  two 
arches  in  length ;  in  ^  a  possible  sun  parlor  or  plant  room.  The 
roof  of  c  would  naturally  be  of  the  pitched  type;  that  on  d, 
hipped. 


PLANNING 


37 


In  B — a  we  show  the  shed-roof  or  lean-to  addition.  Its  roof 
may  be  a  continuation  of  the  house  roof  or  simply  a  buttress 
against  the  house  wall.  A  more  important  addition  is  h^  in 
which  the  rear  pitch  of  the  roof  is  a  continuation  of  the  roof  of  a. 
Still  more  important  is  c,  and  it  can  be  entered  from  the  adjacent 
front  room.  The  piazza  problem  for  B  is  most  naturally  solved 
by  a  location  in  the  angle  between  the  main  house  and  the  lat- 
eral extension.  In  such  case  it  is  best  included  under  the  exten- 
sion of  the  roof  of  the  wing. 

In  the  consideration  of  the  I  and  J  plans  we  have  the  prob- 
lem of  the  through  hall,  which  is  nearer  to  our  modern  methods 
of  building.  It  is,  at  the  same  time,  more  pretentious  than  that 
of  the  B  plan.     We  may  assume  that  we  have  a  two-story  house. 


*I^*'  i  It'  i  ill  1^1  1^'  •! 

--]— {•-•i---f f—     '■,,;    ■     — ^-     •    '     :-      :    ;    I    M *:•--:■- 

■"i--'r--X <• j...;— .4.- 


Fig.  4 — The  "I"  plan  as  divided  by  the  big  beams,  showing 
the  sub-divisions  into  units.     Also  indicating  the  most  plaus- 
ible way  of  addition,  which  applies  as  well  to  the  "J"  plan, 
having  a  similar   frame 


Fig.  5 — Showing 
the  narrow  hall- 
way with  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  un- 
centered  over  the 
centered    door 


as  such  is  generally  the  case,  and  may  use  the  rear  addition  as 
already  explained  in  the  problem  of  the  B  plan.  But  if  we 
desire  further  extension  we  are  in  danger  of  cutting  off  light 
from  some  of  our  rear  rooms  by  this  means.  We  can  of  course 
attach  to  the  center  of  the  rear,  lapping  over  one  unit  on  each 
flanking  room.  The  most  natural  treatment,  however,  is  that 
of  the  flanking  wing,  and  generally,  though  not  imperatively, 
these  wings  should  balance  each  other.  In  a„  Fig.  4,  we  have  a 
room  or  a  collection  of  rooms ;  &  is  an  open  and  through  passage, 
which  in  modem  work  is  designated  by  the  unconventional  term 
of  "dog-trot."  In  the  opposite  extension  we  have  attempted  a 
sub-division  into  rooms  (c-c-c)  which  are  approached  through 
the  passage  d  (perhaps  arcaded). 


38 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


We  have  already  spoken  of  the  second  story  as  being  less 
adapted  to  modern  ideas  than  the  first  story.  This,  while  true 
of  the  earlier  houses,  was  hardly  noticeable  in  the  later  examples. 
With  the  exception  of  the  bath,  the  L  and  J  plans  fill  the  bill 
fairly  well,  but  with  the  B  plan  one  is  obliged  to  traverse  im- 
portant rooms  to  reach  others.  In  Fig.  6  we  show  one  solution 
of  the  problem;  the  back  stairs  reach  every  room,  while  the 
deficiency  in  closet  room  has  been  cared  for  to  a  limited  degree. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  plan  D  of  Fig.  1 ;  it  is  apart  from 
its  fellows,  and  yet  if  we  reverse  the  present  layout  and  inject 
a  through  hall  we  have  the  J  plan.     In  this  case  however,  the 


Fig.   6 — Showing  a  possible   alter- 
ation of  the  second  story  of  plan 
"B."    Solid     black     indicates     old 
work 


Fig.    7. — Plan    of    old   Dutch   house    at   Cor- 
ona,  L.    I.,    showing   the    slight   variation    of 
this    type    of    "J"    plan    from    the    English 
version 


outshot  cuts  off  the  light  from  the  two  rear  rooms  and  should 
either  be  eliminated  or  made  a  part  of  the  latter. 

Now,  while  we  wish  the  reader  to  consider  these  foregoing 
suggestions,  we  expect  him  to  turn  also  to  the  old  work  for  in- 
spiration, for  while  there  is  much  that  is  questionable,  there  is 
an  abundance  of  good.  Our  problem  is  to  select  simple  solu- 
tions and  renderings  that  do  not  have  the  appearance  of  over 
patchiness;  as  to  the  details — they  are  for  us  to  regulate. 

It  might  be  well  to  add  here  a  few  rules  and  suggestions 
which  bear  upon  general  planning.  Additions  are  ordinarily  best 
considered  as  attached  to  the  original  structure  by  their  smallest 
dimension,  which  is  less  apt  to  destroy  the  lighting  area  of  exist- 
ing rooms.     These  should  be  few  rather  than  many — simple 


2i3iajsrai2iajaisiaia/aMaEiaiaraiaia/aoMaiaMBMara/a)3iaE/arai 


i 


An  old  Connecticut  house  of  the  gambrel  type  which  retains  the  tradition  of  the  over- 
hang of  the  Pre  Georgian  style.     (C   L.) 


Old   Dutch   house   on    Long   Island,    N.    Y.       This   has   the   usual   overhang   and    "kick 

with    typical    "stocps"    on    either    side.       Modified    "J"    plan  '  rgj 

.^  . 0 


PLANNING  39 


forms  carefully  subdivided  into  units  rather  than  units  jumbled 
into  an  irregular  whole.  Roofs,  where  connected  directly  with 
the  main  roof,  should  be  made  a  part  of  it  if  conditions  permit. 
Ordinarily  the  addition  should  be  lower  than  the  main  house, 
the  more  so  if  the  supplementary  structure  be  small.  If  the 
main  house  be  two  stories,  the  wings  may  be  one  and  one-half 
stories,  or  if  the  main  house  be  high-studded  enough,  the  wing 
may  effect  its  object  by  using  lower  stories.  Do  not  forget 
that  the  main  house  should  remain  the  dominant  note  of  the 
complete  composition,  and  that  its  roof  should  rise  well  above 
the  surrounding  skyline.  There  are,  of  course,  cases  where  the 
old  structure  is  so  small  that,  to  fulfill  the  conditions,  it  must 
be  considered  as  a  wing.  Wings  like  c  in  Fig.  3,  B  and  those 
in  Fig.  4,  should  have  one  wall  in  line  with  that  of  the  house, 
and  under  no  condition  should  they  extend  fully  to  the  line  of 
the  front  wall,  but  should  be  kept  back  at  least  the  projection 
of  the  cornice.  Small  bays  and  like  projections  may  center, 
but  generally  the  larger  addition  looks  better  if  treated  as 
suggested. 

The  axis  of  a  body  is  its  center  line  and  in  the  layout  of  a 
room  or  the  entire  house,  the  design  is  commonly  made  to  bal- 
ance on  this  center.  Sometimes,  for  structural  reasons,  our 
important  detail  (like  the  fireplace)  cannot  center,  and  fre- 
quently this  is  dominant  enough  to  draw  to  itself  a  new  axis, 
which  is  followed  by  the  lesser  details.  In  any  event,  it  is  well 
to  consider  the  possibilities  of  an  axis  of  design  in  connection 
with  the  proposed  addition,  and  this  axis  is  controlled  by  details 
rather  than  the  general  balance  of  the  rooms  themselves. 
(Fig.  8). 

The  windows  of  the  house  front  are  usually  spaced,  with  the 
front  doorway,  to  make  a  pleasing  exterior  effect,  and  hence  do 
not  center  in  the  flanking  rooms.  The  balance  of  details  as 
above  suggested,  does  not  give  an  academic  plan.  It  has  a 
certain  freedom,  and  lesser  details  may  be  entirely  haphazard. 
In  our  proposed  layout  it  is  important  that  we  consider  well 
the  passage  through  one  room  to  another.  While  with  bed- 
chambers this  is  out  of  the  question,  the  first  floor  conditions 
allow  it.  It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  uses  or 
privacy  of  a  room  should  not  be  disturbed  in  this  process,  and 


40 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


that  it  is  not  advisable  to  traverse  an  important  room  to  reach 
a  less  important  one,  unless  the  purpose  of  the  latter  be  more 
private  or  individual  than  the  former. 


F/rji-  I^loor  JP/i/t 


tSeeontt  J^'JCoor  J'/an. 


Fig.  8 — Showing  the   enlargement  and   alteration  of  a  "B"  plan  in  which  the   axis 
of  design  is  considered  in  the  placing  of  details.     Heavy  pieces   of  furniture  may 
sometimes   be  made   to  take  the  place   of  set   architectural   details..    This    arrange- 
ment may  also  be  adapted  to  a  "J"  plan 


The  piazza,  unless  a  straight  column  is  used,  is  best  set  back 
from  the  corner  of  the  building  so  that  its  cornice  may  butt 
against  the  house  wall.  If  other  than  plain  corner  boards  be 
used  on  the  main  structure,  its  overlapping  of  such  is  a  grave 


PLANNING  41 


question.  In  the  case  of  a  full-length  pilaster  with  cap  and 
base,  it  should  not  interfere  with  this  at  all. 

Carefully  plan  the  swing  of  your  doors;  be  sure  they  will 
swing  to  the  wall.  If  you  have  doors  in  the  end  of  a  narrow 
passage  or  hallway,  remember  that  the  uncentered  door  will 
allow  of  easier  passage  (when  one  is  obliged  to  open  and  close 
the  door)  than  the  centered  one  (see  Fig.  5).  Do  not  destroy 
the  utility  of  all  your  corners;  they  are  valuable.  If  you  desire 
the  sleeping-porch,  keep  it  within  the  style.  The  two-story  piazza 
may  solve  it  or  it  may  come  within  the  house  wall.  In  any 
event,  in  its  latter  location,  it  should  be  so  arranged  that  one 
cannot  see  daylight  through  it,  and  if  possible  it  should  be  kept 
at  the  rear  of  the  house. 

The  foregoing  covers  in  a  general  way,  the  heading  under 
which  it  is  placed,  but  we  will  probably  gain  other  information 
as  to  details  in  the  following  chapters. 


Chapter  J7)fee 
EXTERIOR  DETAILS 


THE  external  clothing  of  an  old  house  may  hide  a  very- 
old  skeleton;  it  is  risky  to  rely  entirely  on  appearances. 
The  older  houses  were  generally  complete  under  one 
roof,  the  ell  being  frankly  an  addition  enforced  by  the 
demand  for  more  space.  Later  houses,  however,  often  make 
the  ell  a  part  of  the  original  planning,  as  is  our  modern  custom. 
It  is  next  to  impossible,  especially  with  older  houses,  to  find  an 
example  that  has  not  been  altered  or  added  to  at  some  time  or 
other,  and  it  is  for  one  to  determine  whether  such  changes  are  in 
or  out  of  harmony  with  the  original  design. 

There  are  three  ways  of  effecting  our  reclamation:  first,  by 
bringing  all  later  additions  into  the  style  of  the  original ;  second, 
by  compromising  between  the  several  extremes;  and  third,  to 
dress  the  whole  structure  in  a  new  coat.  Naturally  the  treat- 
ment depends  on  the  subject,  and  naturally  too,  they  should  be 
preferred  in  the  order  given — the  last  only  when  the  others  fail. 
It  can  be  said  of  this,  however,  that  a  very  plain  house  of  no 
distinctive  style  or  period,  and  of  a  late  date,  may  be  used  as  a 

42 


EXTERIOR  DETAILS  43 

block  on  which  an  acknowledged  style  may  be  built.  That  the 
subject  should  conform  to  the  proposed  style  in  proportions  and 
general  outlines,  goes  without  saying. 

In  the  previous  chapter  we  have  mentioned  the  old  plan  which 
received  the  addition  of  an  ell  when  the  son  married  and  came 
home  to  live.  Generally  the  style  of  the  later  stinicture  was 
in  harmony  with  the  old  and  hence  needs  no  correction.  This 
harmony  is  governed  by  the  sizes  of  the  windows  and  glass;  the 
style  of  cornices,  doors  and  casings;  and  all  such  details  which 
go  to  make  up  a  style.  The  roof,  too,  was  generally  of  the 
same  pitch  as  the  main  roof,  although  the  pitched-roof  ell  is 
permissible  with  a  gambreled  main  house.  Whether  your  ell 
was  a  part  of  the  original  structure  or  not  is  generally  to  be 
detected  in  the  framing.  As  a  part  of  the  original,  the  post 
which  forms  its  junction  with  the  main  house  would  most  natu- 
rally be  found  within  the  line  of  the  main  walls.  If  it  be  of 
later  date  and  unless  the  width  exactly  fitted  the  width  of  a  bay 
in  the  original  house,  the  post  will  be  found  in  the  extension  and 
attached  to  the  outside  of  the  main  structure.  Sometimes  such 
a  decision  is  puzzling  to  the  layman,  and  in  such  a  case  the  car- 
penter can  often  solve  the  problem.  Whether  your  frame  is 
hewn  or  sawed;  of  oak  or  otherwise;  framed  together  and 
pinned  or  merely  nailed;  the  nails  wrought,  cut  or  wire;  these 
bear  much  on  the  problem  involved.  It  is  well  to  remember 
that  while  the  wire  nail  may  be  found  in  old  work,  it  is  there 
only  as  an  assistant  to  the  failing  faculties  of  the  original  agent, 
and  that  the  original  can  easily  be  detected. 

The  walls,  usually  of  wood,  are  not  infrequently  of  brick  or 
stone.  Very  few  brick  were  imported,  except  in  the  South, 
contrary  to  a  myth  to  that  eiFect.  Clay  was  plentiful,  at  least 
m  the  North,  and  even  if  the  product  was  rough  at  first,  it 
sufficed.  But  the  early  settlers  did  not  waste  much  time  with 
either  brick  or  stone;  both  are  rather  the  materials  of  a  later 
development.  One  feature  of  Georgian  brickwork  is  the  pro- 
jecting band  at  the  height  of  the  second  floor,  which,  correspond- 
ing with  the  projecting  underpinning,  served  to  emphasize  the 
stories.  In  the  South,  much  was  made  of  the  ornamental  laying 
of  the  material  and  some  of  this  was  most  effective. 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  the  early  wooden  walls  were 


44  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

generally  of  thick  boards  laid  vertically  on  the  frame.  The 
very  early  methods  were  those  of  England: — studding,  with 
brick,  clay,  chopped  straw  and  plaster  filling  up  the  wall.  We 
mention  this  merely  because  later  it  was  boarded  in  and  clap- 
boarded,  after  stucco,  as  then  made,  was  found  ill  adapted  to 
the  climate.  There  are  very  few  houses  of  this  type  in  exist- 
ence. The  frankly  wooden  walls  as  above  described  marked 
the  most  common  form,  being  cheaper,  and  yet  there  were 
studded  houses  as  well.  At  all  events,  the  early  covering  was 
clapboarding,  secured  with  wrought  nails,  generally  clinched  on 
the  inside  of  the  boarding.  Under  the  head  of  clapboards  we 
are  considering  the  more  robust  and  larger  treatment  afforded 
by  "siding,"  which  is  handled  in  the  same  way  and  has  an  ap- 
pearance corresponding  to  shingles  of  large  weatherage.  The 
shingle,  as  a  wall  covering,  was  not  used  until  much  later,  and 
then  with  considerable  weatherage.  Its  use  was  not  so  ex- 
tended as  clapboarding,  which  had  come  to  stay.  A  two-foot 
cypress  shingle  can  be  gotten  which  may  be  laid  ten  inches  to 
the  weather.  Next  best  is  an  ordinary  shingle,  laid  so  that 
every  alternate  course  is  double,  but  this  is  naturally  not  quite 
so  effective  as  the  real  thing. 

Plain  corner-boards  were  used,  even  with  the  first  shingled 
houses;  which  covering  eventually  abandoned  them.  In  that 
period  where  heaviness  was  a  feature  of  all  details,  the  corner- 
board  was  often  in  the  form  of  a  full-length  square  column  with 
cap  and  base.  Later  this  gave  place  to  the  pilaster  effect  on 
the  front,  but  not  infrequently  the  corner  pilasters  were  re- 
moved slightly  from  the  comers  with  two  other  like  members 
in  between.  In  this  case  a  plain  corner-board  did  duty  for  prac- 
ticability. This  is  more  distinctly  Georgian;  the  Greek  Revival 
which  followed  put  back  the  corner  column,  which  was  fre- 
quently, in  the  Greco-Georgian  style  (the  contemporary  of  the 
true  Revival),  a  pilaster. 

The  framing  of  early  houses  followed  the  custom  of  the 
mother  country — the  second  story  overhanging  the  first,  but  un- 
like the  practice  there,  the  overhang  was  generally  confined  to 
one  side  or  two  opposite  sides,  rather  than  circling  the  entire 
building.  Gables,  too,  frequently  had  this  overhang,  though 
less  pronounced.     Frequently,  the  second-story  posts  extended 


S/SIBaSJ^MSfafaMSMMaaSTMSJ^MMMSMMSISMSMMSMSrSJ 


1^ 


^^^^^^^ 


Detail    of   the    Bowne   house,    Flushing,    Long    Island,    N.    Y.      Of   the    Pre-Georgian 
period   and    English    in   a    Dutch    atmosphere 


The  "stoep"  of  a  Dutch  house  on  Long  Island,  N.  Y.     This  is  a  good  and  simple 
treatment,    with    excellent   constructional   qualities 


[ejeMeMSMSMeMMSMSMSI3MSJaMaMSMSM2MSJ^^ 


EXTERIOR  DETAILS  45 

below  the  supporting  girt  and  terminated  in  what  is  commonly 
called  a  "drop."  This  tradition  has  continued  down  to  certain 
later,  but  generally  pre-Revolutionary,  types  in  the  Connecticut 
Valley,  although  in  these  the  overhang  circles  the  building  and 
seldom  projects  more  than  three  inches,  being  embellished  with 
moldings.  Contrary  to  all  this,  there  are  very  old  examples 
which  had  no  overhang.  It  must  have  struck  some  of  the  early 
settlers  that  there  was  a  considerable  saving  of  time  and  money 
in  the  straight  wall. 

The  overhanging  second  story  has  given  rise  to  a  belief  that 
it  was  intended  for  defensive  purposes.  As  such  it  may  have 
been  utilized  occasionally.  This  method  of  construction,  how- 
ever, had  become  traditional  long  before  the  Colonial  settlement. 

Early  roofs  were  very  steep,  and  this  because  they  were  in- 
tended for  thatch.  With  the  advent  of  the  shingle  they  became 
flatter.  They  were  naturally  simple  in  character  and  generally, 
though  not  always,  without  dormers.  Prior  to  1700  the  gambrel 
made  its  appearance.  This  form  was  of  French  origin  and  be- 
came very  popular  here,  while  strangely  enough  it  seems  to  be 
quite  rare  in  England.  There  was  so  much  of  good  and  utility 
in  both  the  pitch  and  the  gambrel  that  their  use  has  been  a  matter 
of  taste  down  to  the  present  day.  The  former  gave  a  good  attic 
and  stowaway,  and  frequently  bedroom  space  as  well;  the  gam- 
brel was  frankly  a  means  toward  this  latter  utility,  which  af- 
forded excellent  space  for  shallow  closets  and  drawers.  In 
flattish  roofs  of  the  pitch  type,  where  no  bedrooms  were  required, 
the  gable  gives  way  to  the  hip;  the  ordinary  gambrel  is  seldom 
so  treated.  A  rather  flat  form  occurs,  however,  in  which  the 
upper  pitch  is  surrounded  by  a  balustrade.  The  ordinary  form 
is  frequently  treated  in  like  manner,  more  particularly  in  cases 
where  the  gable  is  obscured  by  a  brick  end. 

The  early  cornice  was  simply  an  overhang  with  the  butts  of 
the  rafters  showing,  and  with  this  the  verge-board  or  visible 
rafter  was  used  in  the  gable.  Early  and  crude  examples  were 
apt  to  show  the  rafter  itself.  In  any  event,  the  member  was 
flat  against  the  building  and  devoid  of  elaboration.  This  treat- 
ment extended  to  the  later  gambrel  and  it  was  not  until  the  early 
stages  of  the  Georgian  period  that  we  have  the  boxed  or  molded 
cornice  with  the  returns  on  the  gable  ends.     As  to  the  gable 


46  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

finish,  it  remained  practically  the  same — ^flat  and  with  but  slight 
elaboration,  until  the  advent  of  the  Greek  Revival,  about  1800, 
when  we  find  the  gable  finish  projecting  and  as  important  as  the 
cornice  itself.  There  are  some  examples  antedating  this,  and 
particularly  in  the  South,  that  have  the  full  rake  moldings  and 
the  full  return,  of  at  least  a  portion  of  the  cornice,  across  the 
gables,  after  the  Greek  methods.  The  box  cornice  was,  for  a 
considerable  period,  of  good  depth  and  of  normal  projection, 
but  the  Georgian  style,  parallel  with  the  Greek  Revival,  gives 
us  a  flat  molding  with  a  rather  abnormal  projection,  which  is 
pleasing  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  its  departure  from  Renaissance 
proportions.  This,  the  last  of  what  may  be  called,  by  courtesy, 
the  Colonial  style,  almost  always  returns  its  cornice  across  the 
gables  in  the  style  of  the  Greek  work. 

The  ancient  and  honorable  roof  covering  is  the  shingle,  and 
for  the  wooden  structure  nothing  can  equal  it  for  effect.  Even 
where  slate  was  a  local  product,  it  did  not  fit  the  frame  house. 
As  a  substitute  for  shingles  the  new  asbestos  shingle  in  the 
natural  gray  and  natural  shape  is  good ;  it  approximates  the  gray 
of  weathered  shingle  and  is  non-burnable.  It  can  also  be  used 
for  the  brick  or  stone  structure. 

The  wooden  shingle  can  be  much  benefited  by  dipping  before 
laying.  Perhaps  the  cheapest  way  is  to  mix  your  paint  to  the 
color  you  desire  and  of  a  consistency  as  for  painting;  then  thor- 
oughly mix  this  with  an  equal  bulk  of  creosote  oil,  and  dip  the 
shingles  a  little  more  than  twice  your  proposed  weatherage.  If 
the  roof  water  is  to  go  into  the  cistern,  the  roof  should  wash  for  a 
time  before  turning  the  water  into  it.  A  brush  coat  of  stain 
may  be  applied  from  time  to  time.  This  method  may  be  applied 
to  the  house  walls,  if  they  be  of  shingles.  The  bleach  or  weather- 
ing which  external  woodwork  acquires  when  unprotected,  may 
be  imitated  by  toning  down  with  white  a  mixture  of  black  and 
umber. 

The  earliest  form  of  dormer  is  that  with  the  lean-to  or  pent- 
house roof  and  this  is  merely  a  flattening  of  the  pitch  of  the 
roof  from  which  it  springs.  Later  we  have  the  pitched  gable 
and  hipped  dormers  to  be  followed  by  the  segmental  gable. 
The  final  effort  of  the  true  Colonial  or  Georgian  was  the  com- 
bination of  dormer  forms  in  a  group  of  thi'ee  and  not  infre- 


EXTERIOR  DETAILS  47 

quently  these  were  connected  by  a  balustrade.  Dormers  were 
generally  small  containing  but  one  window.  The  gambrel 
dormer  is  not  common  and  when  found  is  apt  to  be  larger  than 
the  run  of  other  types. 

Early  cornices  had  no  gutters;  it  is  in  fact  a  comparatively 
new  device.  Where  it  exists  it  should  be  retained  as  originally 
designed.  Its  first  form  was  an  independent  detail  of  wood 
hung  on  iron  hangers;  its  utility  demonstrated,  it  became  incor- 
porated in  the  cornice.  As  the  metal  gutter  is  superior  to  the 
wood,  our  usual  problem  is  simple.  Early  conductors  of  wood 
were  treated  architecturally;  if  used  at  all  they  fit  best  the 
more  pretentious  houses  and  even  then  are  best  considered  only 
as  an  envelope  for  the  corrugated  metal.  After  all,  the  cor- 
rugated copper  style  with  a  rectangular  section  is  better  and 
fully  as  effective.  In  the  simpler  types  the  galvanized  con- 
ductor may  be  used  but  should  be  painted  the  same  color  as  that 
portion  of  the  house  against  which  it  comes  and  thus  avoid  as 
far  as  possible  the  appearance  of  an  emphatic  detail,  which  is 
somewhat  the  function  of  the  more  elaborate  type.  Prior  to 
the  gutter,  the  drip  from  the  eaves  was  caught  and  distributed 
by  flagstones  laid  next  to  the  underpinning  on  the  ground 
below.  This  feature  preserved,  serves  to  carry  out  the  old  idea 
to  advantage. 

With  the  exception  of  the  simplest  types,  the  side  facing  the 
street  is  generally  treated  more  elaborately  than  the  other  sides, 
for  while  the  casings  of  other  doors  and  windows  may  be  com- 
paratively plain,  those  of  the  front  may  be  treated  with  caps 
and  further  embellishments. 

The  front  door  generally  is  in  the  center  and  therefore  is 
naturally  the  unit  of  exterior  design,  about  which  lesser  details 
arrange  themselves  and  take  their  inspiration.  Pre-Georgian 
doors  were  of  the  batten  type  and  of  oak;  marked  off  with  a 
scratch-awl  into  a  diamond  pattern.  Where  these  lines  inter- 
sected, the  door  was  studded  with  iron  nails.  Later  came  the 
panel,  in  which  the  face  of  this  was  flush  with  the  rails  and 
posts,  having  only  a  small  bead  molding  at  the  edges  running 
the  length  of  the  panels.  This  type  seems  to  have  persisted 
and  to  have  been  used  even  after  the  beveled  sunken  panel  ap- 
peared.    This  last  was  for  a  considerable  time  used  with  a  bat- 


48  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

ten  back  as  an  exterior  detail.  It  was  sometimes  divided  in  the 
middle  and  swung  in  two  parts  like  a  Dutch  door  with  its  elab- 
orate paneling,  but  for  the  most  part  it  was  single  and  compara- 
tively simple.  In  the  early  forms  it  was  solid  without  top-light 
or  side-lights,  making  a  dark  hall.  Then  the  upper  horizontal 
panel  was  altered  to  receive  bull's-eye  lights,  which  were  later 
added  to  the  transom.  These  gave  way  to  the  simple  top-light, 
which,  gradually  elaborated  with  wooden  muntins,  finally 
blossomed  forth  into  leaded  glass.  With  its  first  elaboration 
came  the  side-light  and  these  in  combination  effected  sufficient 
lighting  area,  even  for  a  considerable  hall. 

While  the  first  door  trim  was  absolutely  flat — a  plain  enclos- 
ing member  like  the  window  casing — it  shortly  took  on  a  cap 
and  back  moldings  and,  later,  pilasters.  In  certain  sections  the 
pilaster  developed  into  a  three-quarter-round  column  and  the 
next  step  was  the  isolated  column  and  the  open  porch,  while  in 
rare  instances,  a  hood  was  supported  on  brackets.  Shortly 
after  1800  the  enclosed  pre-Georgian  porch  came  back  again, 
minus  its  second  story.  Where  one  would  add  an  enclosed 
porch,  which  however  would  cover  a  creditable  doorway,  the 
porch  should  be  so  adapted  and  fitted  as  to  leave  the  doorway 
entire  and  without  mutilation. 

Windows  were  sparingly  used  and  of  moderate  size  all 
through  the  early  period.  They  were  first  of  the  casement  type 
and  diamond-paned  set  in  lead — at  least  after  the  oiled  paper 
and  mica  period.  Towards  1700  these  gave  way  to  the  sliding 
sash  with  wooden  muntins  and  small  rectangular  panes  for  the 
front  and  important  rooms— following  the  new  style — but  the 
leaded  casement  was  still  retained  in  the  rear  of  the  house,  in 
some  sections  as  late  as  1860.  Casement  windows  were  also 
made  for  small  openings,  with  rectangular  glass  to  conform  to 
the  sliding  sash,  but  for  our  purpose,  whether  we  desire  cement 
or  sliding  sash,  the  leaded  sash  and  diamond  pane  may  as  well 
be  ignored. 

In  the  early  wooden  sash,  the  muntin  was  quite  heavy  and, 
we  venture  to  assert,  more  effective  than  the  later  and  lighter 
types.  The  chief  objection  raised  against  the  small  pane  is  the 
work  required  to  keep  it  clean;  there  is  hardly  a  question  as  to 
its  looks.     If  one  really  cares  to  perpetuate  this  feature  and 


qpgpgpqpqpqpgpqp(^(^qpqpqg>gpqpggq59qpq53ejg 


EXTERIOR  DETAILS  49 

does  not  intend  to  occupy  the  house  in  the  winter,  the  effect 
€an  be  obtained  in  the  following  manner: — The  type  of  house 
to  which  this  small  pane  most  naturally  belongs,  had  a  plain  or 
comparatively  plain  casing.  This  being  so,  the  member  can  be 
reinforced  so  as  to  take  an  outer  sash  of  the  style  desired,  show- 
ing practically  the  same  relation  to  the  new  casing  as  the  old 
glazed  sash  does  to  the  old  casing.  But  the  new  sash  may  be 
made  in  one  piece  and  of  seven-eighths  stock  and  covered  with 
wire  screen  on  the  inside.  Blinds  may  be  hung  outside  of  this, 
if  desired,  and  controlled  from  the  inside.  The  sash  proper 
should  conform  to  the  divisions  of  the  screen  with  as  few  divi- 
sions as  possible — perhaps  one  light  to  a  sash.  This  scheme 
might  be  elaborated  so  that  the  screen  is  a  fixture  independent 
of  the  sash,  being  replaced  in  winter  by  a  storm  sash,  leaving 
the  dummy  sash  still  in  place. 

Early  window-casings,  like  those  of  the  door,  were  plain  and 
held  this  characteristic  in  the  simple  types,  to  the  present  day. 
With  the  advent  of  the  sliding  sash  arose  a  new  difficulty  owing 
to  the  thinness  of  the  exterior  walls,  which  were  heavy  boards 
fastened  vertically  to  the  frame,  devoid  of  studding.  Naturally, 
there  was  not  width  enough  in  the  thickness  of  this  wall  to 
accommodate  the  new  window  frame,  since  it  was  made  of  fairly 
heavy  stock,  framed  and  pinned,  so  it  projected  beyond  the 
house  wall.  This  feature  was  retained  in  some  instances  even 
after  studding  came  into  use,  where  it  was  desirable  to  help  out 
the  deep  window-seat.  Later  it  led  to  the  external  projecting 
feature,  taking  the  form  of  a  flat  bay  of  the  same  height  as  the 
house.  With  the  brick  or  stone  wall,  this  subterfuge  resorted 
to  in  wood,  did  not,  of  course,  exist.  Window  frames  were 
heavy  and  solid,  owing  to  the  absence  of  weights,  and  were  as 
effective  in  their  way  as  those  in  the  wooden  houses. 

The  plain  board  casing,  though  checked  for  a  time,  for  the 
reason  above  described,  returned  to  its  own  with  the  studded 
wall.  A  simple  back  molding  or  band  came  into  use,  but  many 
were  absolutely  bare.  This  flat  casing  was  also  elaborated,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  with  molded  cap  and  stool  to  keep  pace  with 
the  entrance  and  other  motives,  and  was  considered  an  index 
of  prosperity. 

In  the  spacing  of  windows,  we  note  that  they  are  seldom  if 


60  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

ever  nearer  together  than  two-thirds  their  width  and  then  used 
only  in  pairs.  Ordinarily  more  space  is  allowed.  The  only 
legitimate  way  in  which  they  may  be  placed  closer  is  by  arrang- 
ing them  in  a  simple  square  bay,  and  while  this  is  traditional  of 
English  work  and  of  our  own  early  shop  windows,  it  is  probably 
more  of  a  feature  of  the  street  line  than  of  the  open  country 
and  would  find  little  authority  in  existing  examples.  Never- 
theless the  feature  is  permissible  and  if  treated  in  a  light  man- 
ner with  consistent  details,  should  fit  the  place.  Its  great  pit- 
fall is  over-elaboration. 

Our  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  which,  if  extended, 
is  in  all  probability  sectional,  that  the  elaborated  dooi*way  is 
supplemented  by  a  comparatively  plain  window  and  vice  versa. 
The  doorway  is,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  the  dominant 
external  feature.  The  area  of  the  window-casing  available  for 
elaboration  is  comparatively  small  and  from  this  and  certain 
structural  conditions  would  have  to  be  finished  at  the  start  as 
intended.  The  doorway,  or  rather  its  elaboration,  is  often 
superimposed  upon  a  plain  casing,  which  serves  to  cover  the 
preliminary  structural  problems.  These  last  concluded,  the 
elaboration  has  been  deferred  and  perhaps  abandoned.  Such 
few  examples  as  we  have  noted,  suggest  nothing  else. 

The  window  shutter  was  devised  to  exclude,  beside  the  wind 
and  weather,  much  more  serious  marauders.  Its  early  form, 
like  that  of  the  door,  was  battened.  As  a  real  feature  and  a 
means  of  closing  the  house  for  the  season  it  is  valuable,  but  it 
cannot  compare  of  course  with  the  blind  as  a  sun  shade,  and 
under  ordinary  conditions  must  give  way  to  the  latter,  unless 
one  has  the  inside  blind  to  fall  back  on,  awnings  being  too 
modern  for  the  remodeled  house.  One  way  of  retaining  the 
shutter  and  doing  away  with  the  blind  is  through  the  use  of  an 
arbor  or  trellis  enclosing  a  window  or  group  of  windows.  This 
should  project  far  enough  from  the  house  to  cut  off  the  sun  and 
would  be  found  practical  enough  unless  the  exposure  was  due 
west,  where  the  sun  drops  a  bit  too  low.  One  might  grow 
grapes  on  such  a  structure  and  thus  keep  all  the  leafage  at  the 
top  where  it  is  wanted;  in  the  winter  your  screen  is  rolled  back 
and  the  sun  has  a  chance. 

Speaking  of  the  blind  it  is  well  to  know  that  the  older  it  is, 


EXTERIOR  DETAILS  51 

the  heavier  it  is  found;  the  earliest  form  we  know  is  between 
three  and  four  inches  thick  with  correspondingly  heavy  louvers. 
Where  one  is  having  blinds  made,  they  should  be  heavier  than 
our  modern  article,  with  the  fixed  rather  than  the  swivel  louvers. 

The  piazza  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  feature  of  the 
Georgian  style.  Its  existence  is  common  enough  to  be  familiar 
but  it  is  not  the  rule.  Southern  mansions,  molded  on  Classic 
lines,  have  embraced  it  and  the  Greek  Revival  has  made  a  fea- 
ture of  it,  yet  our  early  habitation  knew  it  not.  For  all  this, 
it  is  one  of  the  demands  of  our  modern  life  and  hence  must  be 
reckoned  with. 

The  layman  usually  sees  the  thing  in  one  of  two  ways  and 
the  result  is  round  colunms  and  balustrades  or  square  columns 
and  balustrades — according  to  taste.  The  former  may  be  the 
tortured  design  of  some  carpenter  or  a  real  gem,  and  yet  not 
fit.  The  latter  is  generally  clumsy  and  looks  equal  to  the  task 
of  Atlas,  which  it  is  not. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  our  problem  is  really  not  so  serious  as 
might  at  first  be  supposed.  Our  cornice  should  ordinarily  re- 
produce the  house  cornice  at  a  slightly  reduced  scale,  unless  lim- 
ited by  the  cap  of  the  front  entrance.  Our  roof  would 
generally  be  hipped;  frequently  (with  a  pitched-roof  house)  it 
may  have  a  shed  roof  and  in  this  last  form  it  may  come  under  the 
extension  of  the  roof  of  the  main  house.  For  convenience  the 
floor  would  most  naturally  be  one  step  down  from  the  house 
floor  and  this  brings  us  so  low  as  to  be  practically  on  top  of  our 
underpinning.  Therefore  it  is  best  for  the  house  underpinning 
to  extend  under  the  piazza,  in  which  case  our  floor  might  be  of 
flags  or  brick  or  a  combination,  rather  than  of  wood. 

The  columns  are  the  most  difiicult  to  keep  in  style.  If  your 
front  entrance  boasts  a  pilaster,  your  inspiration  is  at  hand, 
and  in  such  case  the  lines  of  your  entrance  cap  should  govern, 
in  a  measure  at  least,  those  of  the  piazza.  The  new  free  column 
may  be  round,  unless  your  pilaster  be  very  scanty  indeed.  If 
the  pilaster  be  bulky,  there  is  all  the  more  need  of  the  round 
free  column;  the  round  column  of  the  same  diameter  as 
a  square  one,  appears  smaller  than  the  latter.  If  your  front 
entrance  be  of  that  debased  Revival  form — and  we  do  not  flatter 
it  by  calling  it  Greek — in  which  the  moldings  are  more  Gothic 


52  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

than  Classic,  it  might  be  well  to  correct  the  original  on  Greek  lines 
and  start  afresh.  So  much  for  the  front  and  sides  of  the  house 
under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  but  for  the  rear,  we  are 
apt  to  find  another  form  of  treatment,  which  is  more  difficult. 

Should  your  house  be  devoid  of  inspiration  as  to  the  column 
and  still  be  not  of  the  oldest  type,  one  naturally  looks  about  for 
a  similarity  and  the  necessary  hint.  Failing  in  this  there  is  a 
chance  that  some  upright  interior  detail  contains  the  desired 
unit,  and  in  such  case  its  proportions  should  be  increased  for 
exterior  use  and  probably  simplified  into  the  bargain.  Should 
all  else  fail,  the  absolutely  square  column  with  perhaps  a  small 
quarter-round  or  cove  molding  in  the  corners,  free  from  cap  or 
base  and  bearing  much  the  same  relation  to  the  cornice  as  the 
corner-board  does  to  the  house  cornice,  will  be  found  to  be  less 
liable  to  criticism  than  some  more  elaborate  forms. 

Old  age  demands  respect  and  for  that  reason  we  approach 
our  oldest  examples  with  caution.  In  the  old  work,  the  frame 
was  the  thing;  it  stood  out  like  the  muscles  of  a  strong  man  that 
defy  entire  concealment.  Often  it  offered  all  the  structure  could 
boast  of  in  the  way  of  ornamentation;  in  its  spacing  and  simple 
details,  it  was  decorative.  What,  then,  is  more  natural  than  that 
the  piazza  (had  it  existed)  should  have  been  framed  in  the 
manner  and  as  a  part  of  the  house?  The  builder  was  not  afraid 
to  expose  his  frame  to  the  close  inspection  of  the  inside;  why 
then  should  he  not  expose  the  outside?  It  is  nearer  to  the  true 
meaning  of  architectural  (decorated)  construction  than  the 
usual  tacked-on  affair  with  the  round  columns,  which  we  all 
know  as  the  piazza. 

But  we  have  another  argument  in  support  of  our  theory  and 
will  spare  the  reader  and  ourselves  his  intended  interruption  by 
introducing  it  at  once,  and  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  to  go 
out  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  for  this  purpose.  First,  how- 
ever, we  would  remark  that  the  framing  post — the  floor  beams 
also — was  generally  treated  on  its  internal  angle  with  a  cham- 
fer which  lost  itself  in  an  ornamental  cut  several  inches  from 
the  ends  of  the  timber.  With  this  as  a  tradition,  the  successors 
of  the  original  builders  erected  structures,  probably  as  late  as 
1770  and  surely  considerably  before,  in  which  their  posts  were 
made  after  the  method  of  the  ancient  beams,  although  generally 


EXTERIOR  DETAILS 


58 


lighter  and  more  or  less  octagonal  in  section.  The  simplest  of 
these  were  straight,  but  later  forms  tapered  the  chamfer  and 
even  the  flat  sides  of  the  post  to  a  certain  extent,  so  that  where 
the  chamfer  ended  at  the  top,  the  cut  that  eased  it  into  the  square 
portion  above,  gave  the  latter  a  cap  form.  We  have  called  our 
argument  a  theory,  for  the  reason  that  the  actual  treatment  did 
not,  so  far  as  we  know,  take  place  in  the  earliest  houses.  We 
are  strongly  of  the  opinion,  however,  that  such  would  have  been 
the  treatment.  This  form  of  post  was  contemporary  with  the 
round  column  and  tapering  pilaster,  being  used  with  it  at  the 
back  of  the  house  or  on  lesser  and  simpler  buildings  of  the  time. 


/  e  e^ 


WfTzz     Mf7j2.     ^r7Jx 


•MM..<M>teH«U«M<A|,|||,«Mt».-«>.^   «««.««.«««!     <««<««Me(l«« 


T 


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i   > 


•^««V<«v««»»         *«r<u'«(t<«Mr>4 


Fig.  d-^Showing  pier  which  supported  the  horizontal  slabs  in  the  old-time  burying 

ground. 

We  hate  to  send  to  a  grave-yard  for  data  for  the  house  and 
yet,  with  care  in  handling,  there  is  much  material  there.  The 
posts  which  supported  the  old-time  slabs  have  preserved  in  stone 
what  we  may  have  lost  in  wood,  and  if  we  take  the  trouble  to 
compare  existing  examples  of  both  we  will  find  much  similarity 
in  handling,  a  fact  that  is  most  natural. 

Although  we  may  assume  the  foregoing  treatment  to  be  per- 
missible for  the  early  effect,  and  locally  for  a  much  later  period, 
there  is  another  treatment  which  first  shows  itself  in  the  early 
Georgian  and  which  may  be  adapted  with  excellent  results. 
This  is  the  adaptation  of  the  elliptical  or  segmental  opening 
heads  which  framed  the  old-fashioned  woodshed.  In  some  cases 
these  may  be  well  fitted  to  the  piazza.  At  any  rate  the  motive 
may  be  copied. 


54  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

Rails  and  balusters  were  simple;  examples  of  the  latter, 
turned,  are  common  only  in  the  later  work.  They  were  gener- 
ally square  and  spaced  about  twice  their  width  apart  at  the 
closest;  earlier  spacing  was  much  more,  and  in  the  early  forms 
the  baluster,  as  in  the  case  of  the  stairway,  did  not  exist.  Speak- 
ing of  the  stairway  reminds  us  that  there  is  much  similarity  be- 
tween it  and  piazza  railing  and  that  some  inspiration  may  be 
found  in  the  former  for  the  government  of  the  latter.  In  the 
earliest  style  we  would  eliminate  the  baluster. 

The  sleeping-porch  is  a  little  more  difficult  of  solution  than 
the  porch  in  most  cases,  although  the  double-decked  and  rare 
second-story  piazza  solves  the  problem  well  enough.  It  is  safer 
to  keep  them  in  the  rear  as  a  rule.  The  solution  of  the  regular 
piazza  problem  may  help  us,  but  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the 
sleeping-porch  is  best  located  within  the  house  wall.  It  might 
be  treated  after  the  manner  of  the  second-story  hall,  with  Pal- 
ladian  motive  or  perhaps  as  a  flat  bay  of  several  windows;  in 
either  case  it  should  become  a  central  motive,  unless  in  the  latter 
treatment  it  should  be  placed  on  the  corner  of  the  end  of  a  wing. 
There  are  several  ways  of  avoiding  this  difficulty  all  of  which 
require  careful  handling  of  details. 

The  baluster  is  not  a  feature  of  the  early  roof  fencing  so 
common  in  the  later  houses;  it  only  occurs  in  porch  and  piazza 
and  the  very  latest  examples  of  the  main  roof.  Its  substitute 
was  the  cross-brace  between  posts,  either  plain  or  further 
elaborated. 

The  open  porch  naturally  comes  under  the  same  head  as  the 
piazza  and,  where  the  two  are  used,  it  should  predominate.  Any 
attempt  to  build  in  side  seats  should  have  good  local  authority 
or  else  it  is  better  to  employ  the  old-time  settle  as  a  movable 
piece  of  furniture.  This  is  reproduced  and  easily  procured. 
As  a  final  caution,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  pergola  or  any 
suggestion  of  it,  has  no  place  in  Colonial  architecture. 

The  chimney,  which  is  either  of  bricks  or  stone,  is  seldom,  in 
the.  North,  found  as  an  entirely  external  feature.  This,  which 
is  an  old  tradition,  seems  to  have  flourished  largely  in  the  South. 
It  is  often  interesting  from  its  indication  of  the  fireplace  within. 
In  the  North,  the  end  chimney  came  within  the  house  or  in  a 
masonry  wall,  forming  a  part  of  it.     In  the  early  type,  the  chim- 


This   shows  that  the   Northerner  had   some   ideas   regarding  the   second-story   piazza, 
which  differed  somewhat  from  those  of  the  South.     Taylor  house,   Roxbury,   Mass. 


A   rear   piazza   in  the   Connecticut  valley,   with  the   "kicked"   roof.     The   problem   is 
one  of  framing  and  was  solved  without  the  aid  of  the  turned  column 


G29d&  GlRcnsidK)  d&cifecI&Gils)  dfed&Gife  dbd&d&dE>  dbd&cl&  cCa  d&d&dfe 


qjsqpqpqpqpqpgp  gp(^gpqp  gpqg>g5?  qipgO^gpsfis*^^ 


EXTERIOR  DETAILS  55 

ney  flared  largely  at  the  top,  later  it  contented  itself  with  a 
slight  projection  and  lastly  resorted  to  the  flag  as  a  top  cover- 
ing. It  was  generally  made  of  such  material  as  the  locality  af- 
forded; brick,  paving  cobbles  or  roughly  faced  stone;  the  rough 
field  stone  was  never  used,  at  least  to  the  extent  that  would  form 
a  sane  example.  Mortar  was  white,  there  being  no  cement. 
The  black  brick,  frequently  used  in  the  South,  were  not  a  feature 
of  Northern  work,  although  it  is  occasionally  seen. 

Early  houses  were  not  painted,  either  inside  or  out,  and  one 
is  often  tempted  to  preserve  this  weather-beaten  effect.  Old 
examples  testify  that  our  first  paint  was  red  and  it  is  a  question 
whether  white  or  yellow  came  next,  although  we  frequently  find 
the  yellow  with  the  red  underlay.  The  yellow  may  be  the  aging 
of  the  oil.  As  the  three  are  accepted  as  Colonial  there  is  little 
excuse  for  using  anything  else.  The  white  house  with  the  green 
blinds  was  a  favorite  and  has  lost  nothing  of  its  dignity  by  long 
use.  Where  the  woodwork  has  become  clogged  by  many  appli- 
cations of  paint,  the  same  should  be  burned  off  to  restore  crisp- 
ness.  This  should  be  carefully  done  as  there  are  frequently 
cracks  and  openings  in  old  buildings  into  which  it  might  be  dan- 
gerous to  introduce  the  flame  of  the  burning  torch.  Do  not 
mistake,  as  an  effect  of  the  paint,  the  woodwork  that  has  been 
worn  and  weathered  while  bare  of  the  preserving  coating.  As 
the  grain  of  the  wood  is  suggested,  it  is  easy  of  detection. 

We  will  close  this  chapter  with  a  few  cautions,  at  the  same 
time  begging  the  reader  to  investigate  and  reason  for  himself 
and  in  his  investigation  be  careful  that  he  is  not  fooled  by  com- 
paratively new  details,  which  may  be,  but  are  probably  not, 
authentic.  The  main  house  is  the  major  and  most  important 
mass  and  should  so  remain.  The  front  entrance  motive  is  the 
dominant  external  detail,  unless  overshadowed  and  thrown  off 
center  by  a  large  and  important  piazza,  and  even  then  it  should 
become  secondary  so  as  still  to  hold  its  importance.  Keep  ex- 
ternal details  generally  simple  but  of  a  larger  scale  than  those 
of  the  interior;  too  small  moldings  are  apt  to  lose  their  char- 
acter after  several  coats  of  paint.  If  it  be  possible  the  run  of 
horizontal  lines  through  the  various  details,  where  the  same  come 
reasonably  close  should  be  preserved,  or  else  ignored  entirely  in 
favor  of  throwing  them  out  of  line.     And  remember  above  all 


56  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

things  that  external  simplicity  is  less  culpable  than  over-elabora- 
tion and  far  less  liable  to  jar  if  it  does  not  quite  happen  to  have 
hit  the  mark. 

It  may  be  well  to  add,  that  in  the  old  house  which  has  at  some 
later  date  been  remodeled  in  the  style  of  the  Greek  Revival,  for 
instance,  there  was  a  chance  for  other  changes  in  the  interval 
and  we  may  assume  this,  if  not  already  done,  clothing  our 
Georgian  motive  in  details  of  the  later  style.  This  of  course 
gives  us  a  certain  crudeness,  which  however  may  be  made  inter- 
esting. 


Chapter  lour 
INTERIOR  DETAI£S 


THE  vital  questions  relating  to  the  cellar  have  to  do  with 
interior  comforts  and  utility.  It  was  the  usual  custom 
to  place  the  old  house  near  the  ground,  which  limited 
the  light  area  of  windows  to  such  an  extent  as  to  render 
the  cellar  damp  as  well  as  dark.  It  is  quite  evident  that  the  win- 
dows must  be  enlarged  in  height.  As  it  is  not  advisable,  unless 
the  house  be  absolutely  on  the  ground,  to  increase  the  underpin- 
ning and  hence  lose  a  valuable  characteristic,  our  only  resource 
lies  in  the  use  of  the  area.  As  it  happens,  this  has  already  been 
resorted  to  by  the  Colonists  themselves,  largely  in  cases  of  the 
house  on  the  street  where  the  grade — at  some  later,  yet  still 
ancient  time — had  been  raised.  Thus  we  have  our  problem 
solved  for  us  and  from  it  we  gather  that  the  area  wall  was  usually 
of  brick  and  of  a  half  elliptical  shape,  so  made  to  withstand  the 
earth  pressure.  In  our  rendering  we  should  carry  the  walls  of 
the  area  down  far  enough  to  eliminate  the  possibility  of  an  over- 
flow of  water  into  the  cellar,  and  with  that  in  mind  the  bottom 
of  the  area  should  be  left  open  and  the  portion  below  the  win- 

57 


58  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

dow-sill  filled  with  gravel.  Another  method,  which  is  perhaps 
preferable,  would  be  to  concrete  the  bottom  of  the  area  just 
below  the  sill  and  connect  the  same  with  a  tile  drain,  which  shall 
skirt  the  house  and  discharge  some  distance  from  it.  In  any 
event  it  is  well  that  the  walls  of  the  cellar  be  gone  over  and  well 
pointed  up  with  cement. 

Not  only  was  the  cellar  dark,  but  it  was  frequently  low  as 
well.  That  this  is  an  inconvenience,  outside  of  the  problem  of 
heating  pipes,  is  readily  understood  and  unfortunately  it  is  not 
always  easy  to  remedy  it.  There  are  two  ways  possible:  one 
is  raising  the  building  from  one  to  two  feet  and  carrying  up  a 
terrace  wall  several  feet  away  from  and  about  the  house  to  pre- 
serve the  apparent  relation  of  the  latter  to  the  ground,  and 
another  is  digging  away  the  cellar  bottom,  say  from  sixteen  to 
thirty  inches,  and  putting  in  a  low  retaining  wall  next  the  cellar 
wall.  The  first  is  effective  when  complete  but  its  great  objec- 
tion lies  in  the  questionable  condition  of  the  house  sill  and  tim- 
bers. The  second  has  several  advantages  while  slightly  reduc- 
ing the  area  of  the  cellar  bottom.  The  low  wall  can  be  carried 
up,  if  desired,  as  a  shell  within  the  old  outer  wall,  and  if  it  be 
laid  solid  in  cement  and  the  new  bottom  concreted  and  drained, 
you  will  have  stolen  a  march  on  the  invasion  of  moisture  from 
without.  In  any  event,  the  old  cellar  should  have  a  drain  as 
the  walls  are  more  apt  than  not  to  be  laid  dry. 

On  Cape  Cod  one  finds  an  unusual  form  of  cellar  which  seems 
to  have  been  calculated  to  withstand  the  shifting  and  unequal 
pressure  of  the  sand.  It  is  circular  in  shape  and  independent 
of  the  house  foundation,  except  for  two  or  three  intersections  at 
which  occur  windows. 

Old  framing  was  of  oak  and  heavy,  often  unduly  so.  Its 
early  characteristic  was  that  of  being  exposed  and  becoming  a 
part  of  the  design  and  general  embellishment.  In  the  first 
houses,  the  big  sill  was  set  above  the  floor  timbers  and  one 
stepped  over  it  on  entering  the  house.  It  projected  into  the 
room  and  formed  a  low  narrow  ledge;  perhaps  many  still  re- 
member this  peculiarity.  There  are  few  houses  of  this  sort  still 
standing.  While  the  earliest  beams  were  roughly  hewn  and  per- 
haps bare  of  ornament,  they  still  had  the  effect  of  being  made 
to  be  seen,  for  such  beams  as  were  used  later  and  intended  to  be 


INTERIOR  DETAILS  59 

ceiled-in  were  very  rough  and  often  showed  the  round  of  the 
tree-trunk.  When  there  was  the  time  and  money,  the  beams 
had  chamfered  or  simply  molded  edges,  terminating  near  the 
beam  ends  in  more  or  less  intricate  cuts. 

The  first  stage  of  this  construction  was  the  entirely  wooden 
ceiling,  in  which  the  floor  boards  of  the  story  above  showed.  A 
big  beam,  called  the  "summer,"  was  set  in  the  center  of  the  room 
and  corresponded  to  the  house  girts.  Into  the  girt  on  one  end 
and  the  summer  on  the  other,  the  lesser  beams  were  framed. 
The  second  stage  ceiled  in  the  lesser  beams  with  plaster  and 
often  this  treatment  was  applied  to  the  first  stage.  The  third 
stage  gave  us  a  cased-in  beaming  in  the  general  style  of  the  first 
stage.  The  fourth  stage  had  the  cased-in  summer  with  the  lesser 
beams  plastered.  While  it  was  properly  contemporary  with 
stage  three,  it  endured  long  after  the  other  had  passed  out.  In 
stage  five  we  have  the  plain  plaster  ceiling  covering  the  entire 
floor  framing,  with  the  cased-in  posts,  girts  and  cross-ties  alone 
showing  of  the  frame.  Later  these  disappeared  in  the  wall  and 
the  charm  of  the  old  construction  was  hidden.  Another  treat- 
ment lay  in  the  early  abandonment  of  the  summer  beam  and 
using  a  floor  beam  laid  in  the  manner  of  modern  times. 

The  early  roof  rafters,  like  most  horizontal  beams  (ex- 
cept the  lesser  floor  timbers,  that  were  intended  to  be  seen), 
were  nearer  square  than  the  modern  article  and  frequently  were 
wider  than  their  depth.  No  ridge-board  was  used  as  in  modern 
work;  the  rafters  met  one  another  directly.  In  the  interval  be- 
tween the  plate  and  the  ridge  was  a  horizontal  member  whose 
office  was  similar  to  that  of  the  plate — to  help  support  the  raft- 
ers. This  in  turn  found  support  on  jack-posts  over  such  main 
partitions  as  occurred  below.  Sometimes  we  find  the  roof  boards 
running  up  and  down  while  the  work  of  the  rafters  was  done  by 
purlins.  This  was  more  common  in  early  work  and  is  not  a  good 
roof  to  shingle  on.  That  it  is  a  tradition  of  the  English  roof  is 
evident.  The  grain  of  a  shingle  should  not  run  in  the  same 
direction  as  that  of  the  boarding  to  which  it  is  affixed  and  thus 
form  the  great  danger  of  splitting. 

As  near  as  we  can  determine,  the  first  floors  were  made  with 
plain-edged  boards  laid  close  together.  Under  the  intersection 
was  a  thin  strip  which  served  to  close  up  the  crack.     There  are 


60  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

examples  of  floors  in  which  the  edges  of  the  boards  were  rab- 
beted and  lapped  but  the  common  form  which  found  much  favor 
was  that  of  the  double  groove  with  the  loose  tongue  which  was 
the  ancestor  of  the  tongue  and  groove.  The  first  double  floors 
were  not  matched,  but  returned  to  the  early  method.  Our  prob- 
lem is  generally  that  of  an  upper  floor,  which  is  mostly  needed 
to  straighten  and  level  up  the  old  floor.  As  the  old  floor  cannot 
be  imitated,  owing  to  the  tendency  of  wide  modern  stock  to 
shrink,  it  is  best  to  lay  it  as  is  the  up-to-date  custom.  Artificial 
heat,  while  detrimental  to  all  woodwork,  is  more  so  to  the  wide 
board;  it  will  open  joints.  The  second  story  floor,  however,  may 
be  in  good  enough  condition  to  preserve. 

We  have  mentioned,  in  the  previous  chapter,  that  after  the 
abandonment  of  stucco  as  a  wall  filling,  houses  were  built  with- 
out studs,  the  frame  being  covered  with  heavy  vertical  boarding 
to  both  sides  of  which  the  finish  was  applied.  This  was  at  least 
a  Northern  custom  and  extended  into  the  time  when  studded 
houses  were  being  built. 

The  early  form  of  wall  covering  was  of  wood,  called  wain- 
scot. Its  wide  boards  extended  vertically  from  floor  to  ceiling 
and  were  lapped  or  put  together  with  the  loose  tongue  strip.  In- 
terior partitions  were  made  in  this  manner  without  other  sup- 
port. In  rare  instances  this  wainscot  was  applied  horizontally, 
the  same  as  siding,  in  which  case  it  was  affixed  to  studding. 
This  early  interior  studding  was  simply  rough  boards  set  after 
the  manner  of  wainscot  but  with  open  joints;  its  use  was  common 
for  a  long  period.  Wainscot  was  also  paneled  in  later  work; 
but  to  distinguish,  we  shall  confine  the  term  to  the  early  form. 

When  the  use  of  plastering  became  common,  outer  walls  and 
the  main  partitions  were  lathed  and  so  covered,  but  for  lesser 
partitions,  the  wainscot  with  the  loose  tongue  survived  well  to- 
ward the  Revolution.  With  the  plastered  wall,  the  dado  came 
into  use  and  has  never  since  lost  its  popularity.  For  a  long 
time  it  was  but  a  plain  board  reaching  from  floor  to  window- 
stool.  The  base  helped  out  its  height  and  the  window-stool,  con- 
tinued, became  the  dado-cap.  Later  it  was  paneled ;  an  efl'ective 
detail  of  design. 

Early  and  middle  period  houses  were  very  low  studded; 
about  seven  feet  and  sometimes  even  less.     Where  one  had  to  heat 


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INTERIOR  DETAILS  61 

with  wood,  whether  by  fireplace  or  stove,  economy  of  space  was 
most  desirable.  Early  windows  were  small,  in  consideration  of 
the  heating  problem.  As  we  have  already  stated,  the  chimney 
was  the  key-note  which  fixed  the  harmony  of  the  plan.  It  is 
the  one  unit  which  one  watches  with  distrust,  wondering  what 
it  will  do  next ;  the  eternal  question  is,  when  will  it  set  the  house 
afire?  We  do  not  wish  to  scare  the  reader,  because  there  are 
many  things  in  his  favor,  but  we  wish  him  to  take  the  chimney 
seriously — it  is  a  most  powerful  agent. 

The  least  one  can  do  is  to  have  it  examined  carefully.  For- 
tunately, the  older  the  construction,  the  larger  the  chimney  and 
the  easier  for  the  mason  to  get  down  inside  it — for  this  is  what 
must  be  done.  Generally  we  find  that  the  top  of  the  chimney 
has  crumbled  and  deteriorated  from  the  generous  use  of  soft 
brick  and  the  wear  of  many  rains,  and  this  is  not  limited  to  the 
exterior.  Such  condition  is  best  treated  by  taking  down  the 
chimney  to  the  attic  floor,  or  in  extreme  cases,  below  it.  Such 
will  probably  save  in  time  and  labor  the  extra  work,  as  it  is  a  slow 
and  tedious  process  working  inside  the  chimney  walls.  Part  of 
the  work  is,  however,  of  this  nature. 

In  reconstruction,  where  it  is  possible  to  get  at  it,  the  modern 
tile  flue  lining  should  be  used  and  where  not,  a  galvanized  pipe 
may  be  let  down  and  filled  in  around  with  concrete  made  of 
lime  and  cement  in  which  hard  brick-bats  are  used.  As  no 
dampers  occur  in  old-time  fireplaces,  the  smoke  chamber  (the 
enlargement  of  the  flue  above  the  fireplace)  is  fairly  easy  to  get 
at  from  below  and  can  be  plastered  over  and  otherwise  repaired 
if  necessary.  The  plaster  should  be  of  lime  mortar  with  but  a 
dash  of  cement,  as  pure  cement  disintegrates  under  the  action 
of  fire.  When  this  is  plastered  to  the  height  of  the  beginning 
of  the  flue  proper,  or  as  high  as  one  can  reach,  tire-irons,  set 
across  the  flue  on  edge,  and  bedded  in  the  masonry,  may  serve 
as  a  rest  on  which  to  start  the  lining.  As  this,  of  a  size  that  can 
be  used,  must  of  necessity  be  smaller  than  the  old  opening,  there 
will  be  considerable  space  about  it  to  stop  up.  A  galvanized 
sheet  put  on  top  of  the  new  irons  will  serve  as  a  base  on  which 
to  build  and  the  whole  should  be  shored  up  until  the  masonry 
has  set.  The  new  masonry  about  the  new  flue  lining,  should 
be  solid,  whatever  its  character,  and  if  it  can  be  brick  and  mortar 


62  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

laid  in  the  ordinary  way,  so  much  the  better.  If  one  has  to  tear 
down  the  chimney  near  enough  to  the  fireplace  to  build  in  a 
modern  damper,  this  work  should  by  all  means  be  done. 

The  round  galvanized  flue  is  suggested  only  in  cases  where 
the  tile  lining  cannot  be  used;  tile  is  of  course  better.  If  one 
can  get  and  use  the  round  tile,  its  working  is  superior  to  the 
rectangular  form.  Smoke  ascends  spirally  and  there  is  con- 
sequently less  friction  where  round  tile  is  used.  A  round  tile  of 
twelve  inches  in  diameter  would  equal  in  efficiency  a  square  tile 
of  the  same  dimension;  some  claim  it  would  more  than  equal  it. 

The  interior  partitions  of  an  old  chimney  are  generally  easily 
removed  and  thus  internal  operations  are  not  hampered  as 
might  seem  probable.  One  should  not  be  surprised  at  what  is 
found  there,  as  the  early  chimney  was  laid  in  clay  with  the  free 
interjection  of  oak  timbers  in  the  masonry.  The  modern 
mason,  starting  at  the  base  of  his  new  work,  climbs  gradually 
skyward  by  shifting  about  on  his  tiles;  at  the  same  time  his  new 
chimney  is  filling  in  solidly  to  the  inner  skin  of  the  old. 

Before  doing  anything  in  the  way  of  reconstruction,  it  is  well 
to  consider  the  advisability  of  introducing  extra  flues.  The 
same  flue  should  not  serve  two  fireplaces,  nor  should  a  stove 
tap  a  fireplace  flue  unless  it  be  on  the  floor  above  it  and  even 
then  it  is  best  independent.  As  to  sizes  of  flues,  we  generally 
consider  that  the  ordinary  stove  calls  for  an  eight  by  twelve 
flue;  the  lesser  stove  calls  for  an  eight  by  eight  and  the  heater  a 
twelve  by  twelve  flue.  For  the  fireplace  we  generally  reckon 
the  area  of  the  flue  to  be  about  one-tenth  the  area  of  the  opening 
into  the  room. 

As  the  oak  sills  and  girts  of  old  work  were  rather  hard  gnaw- 
ing for  rats,  their  usual  highway  was  by  way  of  the  chimney. 
To  avoid  this  a  strip  of  tin  or  galvanized  iron  will  close  up  the 
space  between  masonry  and  woodwork  in  both  cellar  and  attic. 
The  squirrel  and  chipmunk  are  also  a  menace,  entering  the 
house  by  way  of  the  eaves.  A  judicious  use  of  wire  mesh  will 
prevent  their  entry  further.  To  avoid  further  damage,  destroy 
them. 

In  the  building  of  a  new  chimney  we  have  it  all  our  own  way 
and  can  proceed  by  modern  methods.  In  the  base  of  the  old 
stack  should  be  an  ash  pit  with  a  clean-out  and,  connecting  with 


INTERIOR  DETAILS 


63 


this,  an  ash  flue  from  each  fireplace.  Although  a  limited  accu- 
mulation of  ashes  on  the  hearth  serves  to  give  a  better  fire,  they 
are  constantly  in  need  of  reduction  and  our  ash-dump  has  its 
utility.  The  common  fireplace  is  three  feet  wide  and  requires 
an  eight  by  twelve  flue.     Ordinarily  we  consider  the  height  of 


Fig.  10 — Section  and  plan  of  a 
practical  fireplace.  If  an  ash-dump 
opening  is  desired,  it  is  located  in 
the  back  of  the  hearth  at  AD.  A — 
air  space;  B — back  draft;  C — smoke 
chamber;  D — damper;  F — facing; 
H— hearth;  Hf— heater  flue;  Lf— 
laundry   flue 


/■']?•» 


Fig.  11 — Sections  illustrating  the  incorpor- 
ating of  a  hearth.  Fig.  1  shows  a  hearth 
laid  on  the  floor  (very  bad) ;  Fig.  2,  an 
incorporated  and  raised  hearth  by  aid  of 
flagging;  Fig.  3  the  incorporated  flush 
hearth  by  aid  of  irons.  Hd — header;  H — 
hearth;  F — flooring;  B — brickwork;  S — 
plank  studding,  Fl — flagstone;  T — tie 
beam;   I — tire  irons 


the  fireplace  opening  to  be  about  three-quarters  of  its  width, 
reducing  to  about  two-thirds  in  the  larger  sizes.  The  depth 
should  be  about  one-half  the  width;  old  fireplaces  were  often 
deficient  in  this  respect  and  smoked  or  scorched  the  front  of  the 
mantel  in  consequence.  The  outer  hearth  should  extend  into 
the  room  about  the  depth  of  the  fireplace.  The  lining  should  be 
good  medium  common  brick,  except  for  the  back  and  perhaps 
the  inner  hearth  for  which  fire-brick  are  commonly  used.  These 
resist  the  heat  better  than  others,  but  their  light  color  is  rather 
out  of  harmony  with  Colonial  design.  As  a  possible  substitute, 
the  black  header  laid  as  such  will  be  found  serviceable  and  un- 
obtrusive ;  in  fact  the  entire  inner  portion  of  the  fireplace  may  be 
built  of  these.  The  black  header  is  the  brick  next  to  the  fire  in 
the  brick  kiln,  and  if  it  has  survived  this  first  baptism,  it  will 


64  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

answer.  In  any  event,  it  is  best  that  the  inner  lining  be  only 
four  inches  thick  and  generally  independent  of  the  backing,  so 
that  in  case  of  deterioration  it  can  be  easily  replaced. 

Old  fireplaces  were  commonly  built  of  brick,  but  often  of 
stone  which  chipped  and  crumbled  when  in  contact  with  the  heat. 
Some  types  used  a  brick  instead  of  a  stone  back,  which  helped; 
but  the  stone  hearth  suffered.  Another  provincialism  was  the 
use  of  stone  flags  for  the  jambs  and  in  fact  all  else  but  the  back, 
which  was  of  brick.  More  pretentious  examples  frequently  had 
the  familiar  iron  back.  As  a  matter  of  practicability,  it  is  best 
that  the  entire  lining  and  hearth  be  of  some  simple  and  service- 
able clay  product,  neither  too  smooth  nor  uniform,  although  we 
might  concede  a  point  in  favor  of  the  flag  jambs. 

While  the  earlier  fireplace  was  entirely  of  brick  or  stone  as 
we  have  stated,  the  later  facing  was  not  always  of  the  same 
material  as  the  lining;  in  fact  as  time  went  on  the  tendency  to 
deviate  became  more  pronounced.  Thus  we  find  the  plain  and 
carved  soapstone  facings  and  later  those  of  glazed  tile  and 
marble.  As  the  early  facing  was  generally  of  comparatively 
small  width,  it  is  easy  to  see  why  it  was  not  made  more  of  at 
that  time. 

Of  the  two  contrivances  made  to  hold  the  pots  in  early  cook- 
ery, the  trammel  bar  with  its  suspended  hooks  or  trammels,  was 
the  earlier  form.  The  crane,  with  its  pot-hooks  followed  closely 
and  is  quite  ancient,  according  to  our  reading  of  the  times.  The 
crane  is  frequently  made  use  of  in  the  restoration;  it  gives  an 
ancient  touch,  not  obtainable  in  any  other  way,  only  the  real 
ingle-nook  can  rival  it  and  this  is  a  contemporary  of  the  trammel 
and  bar.  If  you  find  these  last  installed  in  your  fireplace,  your 
house  in  all  probability  dates  prior  to  1700. 

One  of  the  best  materials  for  the  ordinary  hearth,  was  the  red 
"Dutch"  tile.  It  was  about  nine  inches  square,  rather  uneven, 
and  fortunately  can  still  be  procured.  The  old  hearth  was  fre- 
quently of  stone,  more  particularly  in  the  early  work.  Although 
it  is  more  or  less  affected  by  fire,  it  may  last  considerable  time 
if  used  as  an  outer  hearth  only.  It  was  generally  supported  by 
projecting  wooden  beams,  built  into  the  chimney  base.  In  re- 
building or  in  new  work  the  hearth  should  be  supported  on 
masonry  foundations  or  piers  for  very  heavy  materials,  as  the 


INTERIOR  DETAILS  65 

case  requires,  while  lighter  tiles  may  be  well  cared  for  by  the 
trimmer  arch. 

A  development  of  the  fireplace  is  the  fire-frame  or  ancestor 
of  the  Franklin  stove.  It  consists  of  top  and  jambs  of  iron  set 
against  the  brick  chimney  facing,  and  is  an  excellent  radiator  of 
heat. 

Frequently  one  is  confronted  with  the  "fake"  fireplace — one 
that,  while  efficient  as  to  its  inner  self,  lacks  the  outer  hearth. 
Now  this  latter  necessity  cannot  be  laid  on  the  floor;  we  must 
tear  up  and  get  below  it.  Then  again  the  big  tie-beam  comes 
across  the  front  of  the  chimney,  making  it  out  of  the  question  to 
turn  a  trimmer  arch,  even  if  we  care  to  tear  away  enough  of  the 
ceiling  below  to  set  and  remove  an  arch  form.  As  the  tie-beam 
is  perhaps  from  eight  to  ten  inches  deep  and  the  question  of  sup- 
port is  settled,  we  can,  therefore,  cut  away  from  three  to  four 
inches  from  the  top  of  this  stick  where  necessary.  There  are 
then  two  ways  of  effecting  results:  the  first  consists  in  laying 
a  two-inch  flagstone  from  the  reduced  fireplace  opening  (so  as 
to  clear  the  beam  on  an  upward  slant,  by  at  least  one-half  inch) 
to  the  new  header.  The  second  utilizes  one-inch  iron  straps  set 
on  edge,  on  which  a  course  of  brick  is  laid  flatwise.  In  both 
methods  the  masonry  is  leveled  up  and  the  hearth  laid  on  top.  It 
is  best,  in  saving  space  below,  to  set  the  tile  their  full  height 
above  the  flooring  breaking  a  molding  around.  In  extreme 
cases  the  hearth  may  be  even  higher,  but  not  if  it  can  safely  be 
avoided  as  there  is  a  tendency  to  stumble  over  it  anyway.  ( Fig.  11 . ) 

One  naturally  turns  from  the  fireplace  to  the  mantel.  This 
as  we  commonly  understand  it,  signifies  the  framing  of  the  fire- 
place with  the  embodied  shelf.  In  the  earliest  work  this  em- 
bellishment did  not  exist,  but  the  great  oak  beam  which  sup- 
ported the  masonry  over  the  fireplace  opening,  called  the  "man- 
tel-tree," was  the  only  link  between  the  earlier  mantel  or  hood 
and  the  form  that  followed.  Soon,  however,  the  space  about 
the  fireplace  was  paneled  and  frequently  we  see  the  whole  side 
of  the  room  was  thus  treated.  ( This  was  the  paneled  wainscot. ) 
Not  only  were  new  houses  built  in  this  style,  but  the  older  ones 
were  thus  embellished.  With  this  treatment  the  old  oak  man- 
tel-tree still  remained — at  least  until  the  fireplace  opening  was 
much  reduced,  when  an  iron  strap  assumed  the  function. 


66  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

The  first  mantel,  which  was  incorporated  in  the  wall  panel- 
ing, was  a  slightly  molded  frame  about  the  masonry.  The  man- 
tel shelf  did  not  occur  at  first  and  its  introduction  was  in  the  form 
of  a  foreign  or  independent  motive — an  after-thought  which  had 
no  connection  with  the  design  of  the  original  paneling.  Later, 
however,  it  seems  to  have  found  its  place,  for  the  mantel  gained 
an  individuality  and  distinction  beyond  the  paneling  which  sur- 
rounded it. 

The  earliest  stair  of  which  our  records  speak,  was  the  ladder 
and  this  in  some  form  or  other  was  the  primitive  thing.  A  later 
form  of  development  we  may  see  occasionally  in  the  cellar  stairs 
of  the  oldest  houses,  but  this  has  vanished  from  the  story  above, 
if  it  ever  existed  there,  which  seems  more  than  likely.  We  refer 
to  the  ladder  form  in  which  the  rungs  are  triangular  sticks  of 
timber,  framed  into  flanking  plank  stringers,  which  while  steep, 
give  the  flat  tread  of  the  stairs.  The  next  form  was  the  common 
one  which  we  all  know,  the  molded  box  stringer  which  resembles 
our  plank;  small,  square,  and  simple  posts,  plain  rail  and  no 
balusters.  This  is  the  form  one  sees  in  our  earliest  existing  ex- 
amples; later  it  took  on  the  baluster.  We  should  not  be  fooled 
by  the  absence  of  the  baluster,  as  often  the  rail  was  grooved  on 
the  under  side  to  receive  them  but  their  installation  was  deferred. 
With  this  groove  they  are  naturally  of  the  second  stage.  Later 
this  form  drops  the  box  stringer  and  adopts  the  open  one;  that 
which  shows  the  step  on  the  stair  facing.  Gradually  the  con- 
sole form  finds  favor  as  a  stringer  ornament;  it  essays  carving, 
the  posts  and  baluster  are  no  longer  square  but  turned,  the  post 
is  a  cork-screw,  the  rail  caps  the  posts  and  terminates  at  the 
bottom  of  the  staircase,  in  a  volute,  the  stairs  flatten  out  and 
Ibecome  easy  of  ascent,  and  we  find  ourselves  at  the  beginning  of 
the  high-water  mark  of  Colonial  development,  just  prior  to  the 
Revolution. 

In  a  previous  chapter,  we  described  the  window  as  an  ex- 
ternal feature.  An  internal  feature  which  came  between  the 
casement  and  the  sliding  sash  was  a  solid  sash  that  slid  sideways 
in  grooves  cut  in  the  casing  of  the  girt  and  the  dado  cap.  It 
is  not  likely  that  the  scheme  was  ever  very  popular  or  success- 
ful and  it  was  probably  sectional.  It  seems 'soon  to  have  given 
way  to  the  ordinary  sliding  sash,  but  we  have  mentioned  it  in 


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89? 


EMMH[^ia^[I2MMSIM3MMSJSMSMSraM^MMM3JaMraMMM3rai 


A    New    England    hallway    of    about    1750.       During    this    period    the    details    were 
iTioderatelv   robust   and    refined 


This   Southern   type   may  also   be   found  in   the   North,   thanks   to   English   architec- 
tural  books.      While   the   New    England   tyne   above   has  been   evolved    from   an   ".\" 

plan,   this  is   frankly   of  the   "J"   type 


INTERIOR  DETAILS  67 

view  of  the  fact  that  the  reader  may  possibly  run  across  the 
grooves  and  naturally  wonder  what  they  may  mean. 

The  early  window  was  small  and  high  from  the  floor  and  its 
casing  plain  to  bareness.  Later  a  simple  back-band  was  for  a 
considerable  time  the  only  embellishment.  In  time  and  in  the 
more  elaborate  examples,  it  gained  a  cap  and  eventually  a  pi- 
laster; it  even  boasted  carving.  In  the  period  of  the  Greek  Re- 
vival the  casing  was  generally  without  back-band  and  in  this 
form  was  fluted  or  grooved,  with  square  corner  blocks,  and  fre- 
quently a  rectangular  panel  interrupted  the  lines  of  the  hori- 
zontal run.  These  panels  and  blocks,  while  frequently  plain, 
were  often  creditably  carved  in  the  Greek  style.  This  influence 
extended  at  times  to  the  less  classic  Georgian. 

The  decorative  value  of  the  large  muntin  with  small  panes 
is  not  to  be  underestimated.  When  a  window  had  twenty  or 
twenty-four  panes,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  hole-in-the-wall 
efl'ect  was  obliterated.  Our  modern  tendency  toward  large 
glass  has  absolutely  destroyed  a  valuable  architectural  detail, 
the  more  to  be  lamented  in  that  it  is  vastly  essential  to  the  best 
principles  of  design.  We  are  thankful,  therefore,  that  we  but 
have  to  refer  back  to  our  originals.  The  pity  of  it  is  that  so 
many  old  houses  have  largely  sacrificed  their  identity  to  the 
modern  vanity  of  the  large  glass. 

The  treatment  of  the  door  trim  is  parallel  with  that  of  the 
window,  only  that  it  is  often  more  elaborate  and  important. 
While  the  opening  in  a  masonry  wall  may  be  square  headed  or 
any  form  of  the  arch,  those  of  the  wood  should — if  we  stick 
closely  to  architectural  principles — be  square  headed.  How- 
ever, the  Georgian  style,  inspired  from  Italian  examples  built 
of  masonry,  in  its  wooden  forms,  has  the  license  of  long  usage, 
so  one  seldom  thinks  of  the  fact  that  the  arch  has  no  place  in 
wooden  construction. 

The  lack  of  closet  room  in  the  early  houses  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  comparatively  scanty  furnishings  were  otherwise 
disposed  of.  Clothing,  if  not  hung  about  the  room  on  pegs,  was 
stored  in  the  chest,  case  or  wardrobe.  The  few  wooden  or  pew- 
ter dishes  were  kept  in  racks.  The  opening  up  of  all  available 
space  was  desirable. 

The  first  buff*et  shows  clearly  that  it  was  originally  a  mov- 


68  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

able  piece  of  furniture.  Generally  placed  across  some  corner, 
it  was  as  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land.  Clearly  under  Georgian 
influence,  it  attached  itself  to  the  older  style,  like  a  barnacle. 
Gradually,  however,  it  became  as  one  of  the  family  and  a  delight- 
ful and  serviceable  detail  of  Colonial  work.  Its  ornamental 
form  had  the  round  headed  opening  and  the  interior  was  semi- 
circular and  half  domed  after  the  manner  of  the  Renaissance 
niche.  The  modern  tendency  was  to  use  leaded  glass  in  the 
doors,  but  the  wooden  muntins  seem  so  much  simpler  and  more 
in  harmony,  that  it  seems  a  pity  to  over-decorate  it. 

In  a  general  way,  the  character  of  moldings  may  help  to 
determine  something  as  to  the  period  of  a  building,  especially 
when  other  details  are  lacking.  First  the  molding  was  con- 
spicuous by  its  rarity,  then  for  its  simple  and  often  crudely 
worked  surfaces.  In  scale  the  early  forms  were  generally  larger 
than  those  following.  It  was,  too,  rather  lacking  in  projection, 
compared  with  the  round  fullness  of  later  forms.  Crudity  alone 
may  simply  mean  less  expert  work  produced  in  a  locality  away 
from  important  settlements  or  main  highways.  From  the  early 
to  the  middle  stages  we  note  a  slight  increase  in  members  and 
decrease  in  scale  until  we  arrive  at  a  stage  in  which  some  mem- 
bers are  almost  minute.  Then  comes  the  later  stage  in  which 
carving  added  to  the  general  richness.  This  last  stage  extended 
beyond  1800  and  was  last  of  the  true  Georgian.  Following  this 
came  a  composite  in  which  the  Greek  influence  was  strongly  felt 
yet  never  quite  overshadowing  the  Georgian  scale  and  details. 
The  general  character  of  this  work  is  noted  in  the  flattish  mold- 
ing with  considerable  projection.  As  for  the  Greek,  its  char- 
acteristics are  so  easily  obtainable  that  description  is  hardly 
necessary. 

We  have  noted  the  axis  of  design  in  our  chapter  on  planning. 
While  this  was  not  always  considered  in  old  work,  as  the  char- 
acter of  the  plan  did  not  admit  of  it,  yet  there  is  no  reason  why 
we  cannot  frequently  make  use  of  it  in  our  alterations  or  new 
work.  A  series  of  openings  offer  a  vista  which  is  often  eff'ective 
even  if  seen  through  the  narrow  confines  of  the  old-time  door- 
way, and  if  the  vista  culminates  in  an  attractive  fireplace  or  a 
bit  of  nature  outside,  the  efl'ect  is  complete.  Naturally  the 
units  embracing  the  axis  of  design  should  have  some  slight  mark 


INTERIOR  DETAILS  69 

of  preference  over  other  similar  units,  some  little  added  feature 
or  embellishment.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  axis  be  on  the 
center  line  of  the  room  or  rooms — a  general  impossibility  with 
the  "B"  plan. 

One  naturally  asks  where  the  line  is  drawn  between  the  early 
style,  which  in  JEngland  was  known  as  half -timber,  and  the 
Georgian  which  followed  it.  As  is  common  with  most  changes 
of  a  peaceful  nature,  the  process  is  rather  one  of  transition  than 
abrupt  discarding  and  taking  on.  For  general  convenience  we 
may  consider  the  wainscot  to  be  the  ear-mark  of  the  early  style 
and  the  panel  that  of  the  following.  Of  course  the  two  cross- 
lap,  but  we  refer  to  their  use  in  important  places.  The  reign 
of  the  four  Georges  embraced  the  period  from  1714  to  1830,  yet 
the  influence  of  Jones  had  been  felt  in  England  long  before,  and 
our  own  Georgian  had  advanced  somewhat,  prior  to  that  period. 
The  gambrel  roof  may  be  said  to  be  a  Georgian  feature,  yet  it 
has  been  used  with  the  overhang  and  the  horizontal  wainscoting. 

Three  modern  problems  of  importance  intrude  themselves 
into  our  old-time  atmosphere  and  refuse  to  be  denied: — heating, 
plumbing  and  lighting.  To  a  certain  extent  and  for  the  strictly 
summer  house,  the  fireplace  suffices  as  a  substitute  for  the 
former.  But  in  a  rigorous  climate  it  leaves  the  week-end  or 
delightful  winter  vacation  a  rather  precarious  undertaking,  and 
half  the  charm  of  the  country  is  garbed  in  a  winter  cloak. 

If  extra  heat  be  required,  there  are  several  things  to  be  con- 
sidered and  first  is  the  system  of  supply.  At  the  start  we  will 
eliminate  steam  as  its  offices  are  better  supplied  by  hot  water. 
This  leaves  us  hot  water  and  hot  air.  Hot  water  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  giving  adequate  heat  and  putting  it  where  it  belongs ; 
it  is  a  sure  system  if  only  it  be  kept  going.  It  becomes  objec- 
tionable in  its  liability  to  freeze  if  water  is  left  in  the  system 
when  not  in  use,  and  consequently  the  extra  work  required  in 
preparation,  prior  to  opening  the  establishment,  even  for  a  few 
days,  and  last,  but  not  least,  in  its  unsightly  radiator,  which 
has  been  designed  with  any  other  idea  but  that  of  harmonious  oc- 
cupation of  the  place  assigned  it. 

Hot  air  is  a  healthful  heat,  delivering,  as  it  does,  warmed 
pure  air.  There  is  nothing  to  freeze ;  it  can  be  left  without  extra 
work  at  the  last  moment  without  danger  of  damage  and  it  can 


70  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

be  started  without  loss  of  time.  Nor  do  its  registers  intrude 
themselves  after  the  manner  of  radiators.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, it  is  a  great  consumer  of  fuel;  it  requires  extra  head-room 
in  the  cellar;  its  second  story  pipes  occupy  much  space  and  it 
does  not  always  deliver,  where  it  is  wanted,  as  it  is  next  to  im- 
possible to  drive  heat  against  the  wind. 

One  may  naturally  raise  the  query  as  to  stoves.  We  do  not 
consider  them  advisable;  the  kitchen  range  is  enough.  If  set  up 
prior  to  closing  the  house,  they  must  be  oiled  to  prevent  rusting. 
Does  one  require  them  for  a  couple  of  days,  it  takes  just  about 
that  time  to  burn  off  the  oil,  then  they  must  be  oiled  again  and 
oil  cannot  be  applied  to  a  hot  stove.  The  involved  inconveni- 
ences are  apparent  to  the  housekeeper. 

Returning  to  hot  water: — we  can  do  nothing  to  change  the 
inconvenience  of  the  system;  being  a  system  establishes  its 
inelasticity.  The  only  thing  that  can  be  tackled  with  any  hope 
of  success  is  the  radiator.  We  do  not  think  of  any  practical 
scheme  for  disguising  it  while  in  use — not  at  least  in  the  old 
house.  The  second  story  pipes  may  be  carried  up  in  a  parti- 
tion, a  closet,  an  unimportant  room  or  in  an  imitation  post  made 
to  balance  the  genuine  article.  But  the  natural  location  of  the 
outlet  is  on  the  outer  wall  and  near  the  corner  if  possible  and 
unless  one's  post  is  very  small  and  will  admit  of  plausible  en- 
larging, we  are  thwarted.  In  a  masonry  wall  we  sometimes 
have  a  chance — that  is  if  we  care  to  pay  for  it,  but  the  danger 
of  chilling  the  pipes  often  makes  such  an  arrangement  im- 
practical. There  is  however,  one  chance  which  may  serve  to 
screen  the  radiator  and  pipes  as  well,  and  this  lies  in  the  furred 
partition  of  the  frame  house,  where  such  treatment  was  resorted 
to  in  order  to  get  the  deep  window-seat.  This  side  being  en- 
tirely of  wood,  one  can  arrange  the  panels  regardless  of  dado 
height  and  in  this  incorporate  double  doors  which  may  stand 
open  while  the  heater  is  in  operation.  This  would  require  a 
metal  box  to  enclose  the  radiator,  pitching  outward  at  the  top 
and  covered  on  the  back  to  retard  the  loss  of  heat.  Whether  it 
is  advisable  to  attempt  the  screening  of  the  radiator  is  a  ques- 
tion. That  it  would  perhaps  hamper  its  operations  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  seems  probable.  If  used  at  all,  it  should  be  simple 
as  it  has  no  parallel  in  Colonial  design  unless  one  paints  the 


dfed&cCadE)  6?&GlfeGl!3  dlsGl&GlI&dfe  dbt^&Gjfe  Gl&d&d&Gl&  d&d&cl&  gIE)  d&d&d& 


(^qpqp  qp  qpqpqp  gpqpqpgp  qpqg>qp  q[3gpejpqp  eg3^ 


.^  -'» »  „»^«*» 


A   Xcw   England  mantel  of  simple  but  interesting  design.     The  dado  and  door  trim 
is  also  good.     The  Franklin  stove  is  worth  while  as  a  chamber  heater 


A    Dutch    mantel    from    Long    Island,    X.    Y.,    which,    despite    the    flanking    pilaster 
"puzzles,"  is  crisp  and  effective  as  a  design 


INTERIOR  DETAILS  71 

radiator  black  and  tries  for  a  baluster  effect.  For  the  Classic 
Revival,  one  might  employ  the  cast-iron  window  grill  made  for 
that  style. 

To  screen  an  exposed  radiator  when  not  in  use,  we  would 
suggest  placing  some  article  of  furniture  in  front  of  it.  If  a 
secretary,  the  drawers  might  be  shortened  in  the  back,  and 
thus  one  has  a  three-sided  screen  to  enclose  the  objectionable 
?eature.  Or  if  one  were  to  use  a  very  low  radiator,  an  imitation 
chest  to  be  used  as  a  seat  may  eiFect  the  same  end. 

With  hot  air  there  seems  to  be  but  one  chance  for  it.  Use 
it  with  a  small  house  and  place  the  heater  in  the  direction  of 
the  prevailing  winds,  or  get  two  heaters  for  a  large  house  and 
thus  reduce  the  horizontal  run  of  pipe;  it  is  in  the  latter  that 
our  difficulty  lies. 

Plumbing  is  a  modern  necessity.  Although  the  well  may 
be  our  source  of  water  supply,  having  it  piped  to  the  house 
is  almost  a  necessity.  Perhaps  one  may  desire  a  tank  in  the 
attic  or  perhaps  it  is  a  lift  pump  in  the  kitchen;  in  either  case 
there  is  a  saving  over  carrying  by  hand. 

In  locating  the  bathroom,  one  naturally  bears  in  mind  that 
the  waste  pipes  must  he  located  beneath  it  and  that  one  does  not 
care  to  see  them  in  the  parlor  or  hall.  To  avoid  cutting  much 
into  the  old  construction — which  by  the  way  is  the  carpenters' 
and  not  the  plumbers'  job — it  is  best  to  lay  the  horizontal  waste 
pipes  on  the  old  floor  and  furr  up  for  a  new  floor  with  six-inch 
timbers,  using  a  single  floor  on  top.  Ordinarily  there  will  be 
sufficient  headroom  left,  after  deducting  this.  If  the  vent  pipe 
occurs  near  a  chimney  there  is  perhaps  a  chance  to  carry  a  part 
of  it,  at  least,  up  next  the  kitchen  flue,  where  the  warmth  may 
induce  a  draft  with  good  results. 

While  the  up-to-date  plumbing  system  may  be  essential, 
yet  certain  old  methods  have  their  value;  the  sanitary  earth 
closet  is  not  to  be  despised  in  cases  where  it  is  not  advisable  to 
install  the  plumbing  system. 

The  lighting  of  the  old  house  may  be  satisfactorily  solved 
by  the  older  methods  of  lamps  or  candles;  one  is  nearer  to  the 
real  thing  in  these.  There  is  a  certain  convenience  however  in 
gas  and  electricity,  which  many  demand,  and  ordinarily  the  latter 
is  the  medium,  if  a  public  plant  exists  at  all.     A  comparatively 


72  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

new  gas  system  is  that  in  which  the  hghting  medium,  in  con- 
densed form,  is  transported  to  any  point  in  large  metal  bottles. 
These  are  attached  to  the  house  system  and,  as  far  as  we  know, 
give  excellent  results.  There  is  of  course  the  private  plant, 
which  may  be  designed  to  supply  gas  or  electric  current. 

Although  we  shall  speak  at  length  on  outlets  in  Chapter 
Six,  it  might  be  well  to  mention  that  the  candle  period  is  that 
which  must  be  imitated  if  we  would  keep  close  to  early  tradi- 
tional usage. 


Chapter  Fii^e 
I/ARDWARE 

IF  one  be  so  fortunate  as  to  find  all  the  hardware  of  his  old 
house  intact,  he  can  congratulate  himself.  Old  things 
much  used,  wore  out,  and  doors  and  windows  were  no  ex- 
ception. When  these  were  discarded  for  the  more  up-to- 
date  style,  the  hardware  was  apt  to  pass  also,  giving  preference  to 
the  "modern"  article.  Hence  we  frequently  note  in  the  old  house, 
a  graded  scale,  a  history  of  hardware,  which  sometimes  starts 
with  the  latch  string  in  the  attic  and  the  wooden  hinges  in  the 
cellar,  through  the  iron  latches  in  the  kitchen,  the  box  surface 
lock  in  the  best  chamber  to  the  late  mortice  lock  with  its  metal 
knob,  in  the  front  parlor.  Of  these  it  may  be  only  the  last  that 
is  objectionable.  A  house  may  hold  within  itself  much  of  im- 
provement without  being  obnoxious  so  long  as  it  does  not  extend 
too  far  into  the  present.  Generally  the  best  rooms  were  those 
improved;  the  old  kitchen  is  apt  to  be  nearer  the  original. 

Now  of  course  if  your  later  doors  are  of  good  design  there 
is  no  reason  to  discard  them  and  consequently  the  hardware. 
The  older  inside  doors  were  generally  about  seven-eighths  of  an 

73 


74  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

inch  thick  or  less ;  the  thinnest  door  on  which  a  mortice  lock  was 
used  was  one  inch.  Some  of  these  early  mortice  locks  were  very- 
good,  having  commonly  white  porcelain  or  glass  handles  with 
comparatively  simple  brass  in  the  more  elaborate  forms.  The 
thin  door  was  fitted  with  the  latch  and  surface  hinges,  while  the 
fixed- joint  "butt"  or  hinge  supported  the  thicker  type.  In  the 
early  paneled  door  the  usual  form  of  molding,  at  least  in  the 
East,  was  the  quarter-round  and  this  was  a  part  of  the  door 
frame  and  not  an  independent  piece  as  in  later  doors.  The 
panels,  too,  were  "raised"  and  their  face  flush  with  the  face  of 
the  frame.  The  back  of  the  door,  which  was  distinctly  a  back, 
was  plain:  flat  panels  and  no  moldings.  A  later  form  in  which 
were  used  mortice  lock  and  butts,  had  the  raised  panel  without 
the  molding.  Still  later  the  door  became  double  sided,  had  small 
inserted  moldings  and  plain  panels.  These  were  commonly  one 
inch  and  a  quarter  thick.  With  the  early  forms  were  used,  first 
the  latch  and  then  the  surface  lock.  This  last  was  also  used 
with  thicker  doors.  The  very  earliest  door  was  a  "batten,"  in 
which  the  strap  hinge  extended  its  full  width.  Styles  of  course 
vary  in  different  sections  and  the  periods  and  fittings  overlap 
each  other  more  or  less,  but  the  foregoing  is  intended  to  show 
certain  general  relations. 

Now  naturally,  if  one  find  the  early  hardware  lacking,  the 
question  arises  as  to  where  it  may  be  procured.  Often  these 
things  may  be  found  in  the  junk-shop  of  a  small  city  or  in  the 
catch-all  box  of  farmers,  or  they  may  be  procured  by  agree- 
ment from  an  old  house  which  is  past  usefulness,  or  again  from 
a  tenanted  house  perhaps  by  the  exchange  of  other  hardware. 
I^atches  and  surface  hinges  are  frequently  found  in  the  cellar 
litter  of  houses  destroyed  by  fire.  And  lastly,  there  are  some 
forms  among  the  modern  reproductions,  both  in  iron  and  brass. 

There  are  two  heads  which  claim  our  attention  when  choos- 
ing hardware  for  our  refitting.  These  are  art  and  practicability, 
and  of  these  the  latter  is  of  prior  importance.  Practicability  is 
the  ground  or  frame  on  which  artistic  embellishment  is  based. 
A  thing  may  be  severely  practical  and  still  be  artistic,  or  it  may 
be  elaborately  artistic  and  yet  practical.  Often  the  very  limita- 
tion necessary  to  its  practicability  gives  most  excellent  results. 

The  most  important  member  in  connection  with  which  hard- 


?  «■  «    * 


dfedfedfedfe  GJ^Gfladfe  dfeel&cl&dls  dfe^clfe  dbd&d&dE)  d&d&dB  gI&  d&d&db 


^' 


i 
i 


Common   to    North 
and    Sontli 


kiiuckcr    (C.   L.)  Mrass   knocker    (C.    L.) 


qpqpgp  qp  gjsxgpgp  gpqpejpgp  e22iejg>qi2»  ejpgpegsejp  ejpqgejja  gpejpejpqp 


HARDWARE  75 


ware  is  to  be  considered  is  the  door,  already  mentioned. 
Roughly  the  door  is  a  wooden  panel  closing  an  opening  in  a  wall. 
It  is  swung  on  hinges  and  fitted  with  a  contrivance  to  hold  it 
shut.  It  is  fitted  into  a  rabbet  at  the  top  and  sides  and  swings 
clear  of  a  threshold  at  the  bottom.  Theoretically  this  is  simple 
but  practically  it  is  different.  The  besetting  sins  opposed  to 
the  perfect  working  of  the  door  lie  in  sagging — first  of  the  door 
itself  and  second  owing  to  loose  hinges.  Doors  do  not  as  a  rule 
suggest  from  their  design  that  they  are  hung  on  one  side. 
There  are  some  old  outside  doors  which  show  braces  in  their 
construction  and  these  are  better  and  truer  to  the  door  principle 
than  those  of  rectangular  panels,  as  they  suggest  at  once  the 
fact  that  the  door  is  hung,  and  that  the  door  has  been  designed 
to  meet  the  difiiculty  of  sagging.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  or- 
dinary door  of  soft  wood,  if  well  made,  suffers  little  in  this  re- 
spect; older  doors  in  particular  being  thin  and  light  as  a  rule. 
The  principal  difficulty  lies  in  the  pulling  away  of  the  upper 
hinge.  Practically  the  door  does  not  fit  tightly  into  its  rabbet 
but  is  allowed  some  play  in  order  that  it  may  work  easily.  It 
is  this  which  permits  it  to  sag  and  consequently  to  bind.  The 
method  used  in  hanging  the  door  by  the  previous  generation, 
was  to  allow  the  easy  rolling  of  a  quarter  dollar  in  the  joints 
when  the  door  was  closed.  This  sagging  is  of  course  limited 
when  the  door  is  shut  and  is  less  restricted  when  it  is  open. 
When  in  the  latter  case  it  becomes  bad  enough  to  interfere  with 
the  floor  it  is  time  to  throw  it  away.  The  old-fashioned  pinned 
door  is  less  liable  to  pull  apart  than  the  more  recent  sort  with 
glued  joints.  When  the  door  itself  begins  to  sag  it  must  be 
eased  with  the  plane  at  the  points  of  friction,  which  at  once  gives 
it  a  chance  to  sag  more ;  if  it  starts  the  hinges  they  must  be  reset. 
In  the  half  or  Dutch  doors  where  the  leverage  was  con- 
siderable, the  strap  hinge  was  used  and  extended  across  the 
full  width  of  the  door.  This  form  of  strap  hinge  was  "loose- 
joint":  that  is,  the  hinge-pin,  which  was  driven  into  the  door 
post,  and  which  received  the  strap  socket,  allowed  of  the  easy 
unhanging  of  the  door.  Its  principle  was  somewhat  at  fault 
as  the  strain  was  not  direct, — the  hinge-pin  receiving  a  side  and 
not  a  direct  strain.  For  this,  and  the  further  reason  that  it  is 
next  to  impossible  satisfactorily  to  readjust  the  hinge-pin,  owing 


76  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

to  the  considerable  hole  made  in  the  door-post,  it  should  not 
generally  be  used  in  modern  work.  When  affixed  to  the  old 
oaken  door-post  however  it  was  fairly  firm.  The  later  and  bet- 
ter form,  the  familiar  surface  hinge,  was  on  the  same  principle 
as  the  strap  hinge  of  to-day,  which,  while  having  the  disadvan- 
tage of  the  fixed  joint,  admitted  of  better  adjustment  to  the 
door-post;  the  same  being  effected  by  nails.  The  strap  hinge 
was  one  form  of  the  surface  hinge,  and  as  a  door  support,  the 
best  type  we  have  had.  We  know  of  no  perfect  hinge,  but  this 
comes  nearest  to  it;  its  objection  lies  in  the  fixed  joint,  which 
prevents  the  easy  unhanging  of  the  door  in  case  of  the  shifting 
of  the  door-frame.  There  is  however  no  reason  why  the  old 
models  cannot  be  altered  to  the  loose-pin  type  with  but  little 
expense.  But  these  pins  should  be  of  brass  to  avoid  the  rusting 
together  of  parts. 

The  next  hinge  which  claimed  the  attention  of  our  fore- 
fathers and  which  soon  superseded  the  surface  hinge,  was  the 
fixed- joint  "butt."  This  being,  when  folded,  but  the  thickness 
of  the  door,  was  practically  concealed  between  the  door  jamb 
and  the  engaging  rabbet,  thus  destroying  an  important  prin- 
ciple of  good  art,  which  demanded  in  this  case  that  the  door 
have  some  visible  means  of  support.  This  form  of  hinge  has 
developed  into  the  common  form  of  to-day  with  but  few  changes. 
The  first  of  these  was  making  the  two  hinge  plates  detachable, 
so  that  the  door  could  be  readily  unhung;  these  were  called 
"loose- joint"  butts.  For  heavy  doors  the  "loose-pin"  pattern 
was  an  extension  of  the  loose- joint  principle.  Owing  to  the 
awkwardness  of  conditions  attending  the  unhanging  of  the  door 
a  further  alteration  of  the  old  type  widened  the  hinge-plate  so 
that  the  door  when  open,  swung  free  of  the  casing,  thus  allow- 
ing one  to  secure  a  hold  on  the  inner  stile.  Personally  we  do 
not  care  for  this  type  of  hinge.  In  the  first  place  as  already 
stated,  it  does  not  sufficiently  suggest  the  hanging  of  the  door; 
secondly  its  mode  of  attachment  is  poor.  It  depends  for  its 
hold  upon  the  woodwork — on  the  resisting  qualities  of  the  wood 
fiber  engaging  the  comparatively  minute  screw  threads.  If  the 
strain  exerted  were  uniform  and  direct  upon  the  hinge-plate, 
there  would  be  less  chance  of  their  loosening,  but  it  is  a  shifting 
and  prying  strain. 


HARDWARE 


77 


Unless  one  has  to  do  with  the  problem  of  the  Greek  Revival, 
the  conimon  forms  of  the  surface  hinge,  which  we  have  already 
mentioned,  may  be  used  anywhere,  with  the  latch  or  surface 
lock,  without  committing  any  serious  architectural  offense. 
Not  having  made  any  very  extended  investigation  of  the  mat- 
ter, we  are  still  under  the  impression  that  this  type  is  not  repro- 
duced to  any  extent  in  modern  hardware.  It  is  a  common  cus- 
tom to  effect  this  feature  in  modern  Colonial  work  with  loose 
hinge-plates  which  are  merely  "ornaments"  placed  in  proper 
juxtaposition  to  the  active  agent — the  butt. 
This,  while  somewhat  cheaper  than  the  real 
thing,  does  not  remedy  the  faults  of  the  more 
modern  article.  For  minor  doors  this  treat- 
ment may  answer,  but  we  would  suggest  for 
heavy  doors  that,  if  one  can  procure  good 
specimens  of  the  old  iron  surface  hinge  with 
but  little  trouble  and  expense,  the  local  black- 
smith can  tinker  the  upper  hinge,  so  as  to  off- 
set the  prying  strain  on  the  upper  hinge-plate. 
If  your  blacksmith  cannot  do  this  any  reliable 
hardware  manufacturer  should.  It  is  simply 
to  incorporate  a  couple  rabbet  plate  to  keep 
the  hinge  in  place  while  the  door  is  open. 

Old  hardware  was  at  first  put  on  with 
wrought  nails  and  the  effect  of  the  irregular 
heads  'was  most  interesting.  Owing  to  the 
difficulty  in  removing  them,  they  should  be 
avoided  by  us  for  such  purpose.  As  a  substi- 
tute, a  large,  round-headed  brass  screw  can  be 
filed  slightly  to  suggest  irregular  contour  and  flat  hammer- 
planes,  but  care  should  be  taken  not  to  weaken  the  slot.  This 
last  can  be  filled  with  paint  or  putty  without  destroying  its 
efficiency. 

Sometimes  red  felt  or  leather  was  used  under  the  nail-heads. 
With  the  unpainted  brass  screw  this  might  be  very  interesting, 
but  it  should  be  used  only  in  the  best  rooms  and  there  through- 
out.    Any  color,  not  too  dark,  might  replace  the  red. 

In  order  that  the  door  may  be  fastened,  it  must  be  hung 
and  we  will  assume  this  task  has  been  accomplished. 


12— The  door 
portion  of  old  sur- 
face hinge,  showing 
the  new  rabbet  or 
jamb   plate,   which   is 

shaded 


78 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


The  latch  string  has  come  down  the  years  and  stands  to- 
day, the  emblem  of  friendly  hospitality,  but  it  has  a  real  use; 
it  suggests  real  latches  of  wood,  which  of  course  would  only 
apply  to  the  early  forms  and  batten  doors.     In  later  days  they 

were  used  on  some 
minor  doors  where  the 
ever  thoughtful  econ- 
omy regulated  house- 
hold affairs  and  we 
recall  an  elderly  gen- 
tleman who  remembers 
distinctly  certain  juv- 
enile confinements  in 
the  ancestral  attic, 
with  the  latch  string 
carefully  withdrawn 
from  his  side  of  the 
door.  Its  under-sec- 
retary,  the  wooden 
button,  was  used  ex- 
tensively and  is  still 
used  on  rough  work. 
Formerly  it  was  very 
interesting  as  jack- 
knife  handicraft — they  could  use  jack-knives  in  those  days,  too. 
It  left  us  metal  descendants  which  are  very  useful  for  small 
closet  doors,  but  as  they  do  but  half  the  work,  being  operated 
from  one  side  only,  they  are  easily  disposed  of.  The  little  oval 
knobs,  however,  with  circular  button  plates  of  brass  are  excel- 
lent in  their  way  and  with  the  brass  surface  hinge  make  effec- 
tive trimmings  for  the  small  door. 

It  is  the  iron  latch,  however,  that  is  of  greater  interest.  Its 
earliest  form,  as  far  as  we  know,  was  that  of  roughly  wrought 
metal  in  which  the  grip-plates  were  lanceolate  or  leaf-shaped; 
later  comes  the  continuous  and  more  rectangular  plate,  of  cast 
metal. 

The  principle  of  the  latch  is  too  simple  and  well  known  to 
require  description  of  its  working  parts,  which,  while  direct  are 
not  close  working.     The  more  ornamental  side  of  the  latch  is 


Fig.  13 — The  wooden  latch  is  not  difficult  to 
make  with  a  jack-knife.  The  catch  in  this  case 
is  made  of  the  junction  of  two  limbs  with  the 
trunk.  A  braided  leather  shoestring  is  better 
than  rope. 


^M^J^M^MEM^M^M^M^M^M^Mu^M^I^M^M^M^MEM^M 


fSMeMSJSiSJeMSMSJSMSMMHMaSMeMSMSMfSMSJSMIMa^ 


4.C       V  .*>-«■ 


83^ 


Brass  knocker 
(C.    L.) 


An  excellent  bronze  knncker.   South-      Brass  latch.    (C  L.) 

era 


Brass    knocker    with    crisp   cutting 


Brass  knocker.     Later  type.     (C  L.) 


HARDWARE  79 


naturally,  from  its  working,  used  on  the  side  of  the  door  opposite 
to  the  hinge.  This  consists  of  the  handle  and  thumb-piece. 
The  latch  on  the  opposite  side  with  its  simple  working  parts  is 
hardly  less  interesting.  We  hate  to  acknowledge  it  but  the  latch 
has  one  grave  defect.  We  went  into  an  old  house  with  a  friend 
a  short  time  ago  to  pick  up  some  information,  and  the  friend 
glancing  around  asked  the  old  lady  what  she  had  done  with  the 
latches.  "Well,"  she  answered,  "yer  know  we  had  to  take  them 
all  off;  they  tore  our  clothes  so!"  And  when  one  comes  to 
think  of  it,  'tis  so;  look  at  the  projection  of  the  latch  beyond  the 
door  and  the  hook  of  a  handle  that  lifts  it.  Then  too,  the  wicked 
little  latch-catch  which  is  affixed  to  the  door-post  is  a  further, 
though  lesser,  agent  of  destruction ;  even  in  cheap  modern  latches 
there  is  some  danger  from  the  above  mentioned  parts.  These 
deficiencies  are  such  as  would  mostly  annoy  the  female  side  of 
the  establishment.  A  farmer  who  had  a  fine  old  latch  on  his 
front  door  volunteered  the  information  that  he  was  going  to  take 
if  off  because  he  could  not  "slam  the  door  and  hev  it  stay  shet." 
The  latch  was  not  calculated  to  provide  for  such  undue  haste. 
On  the  whole  it  does  not  seem  advisable  to  employ  the  early 
form  of  latch  on  much  used  interior  doors  without  some  modi- 
fication. With  the  better  examples  the  lift  was  a  straight  bit 
of  iron  projecting  but  slightly  beyond  the  door.  In  this  the 
curved  end  had  generally  been  eliminated.  This  was  a  rather 
insufficient  grip,  but  on  the  other  hand  its  aggressiveness  was  not 
serious,  and  the  button  attached  to  the  latch  served  the  purpose, 
where  it  existed.  If  you  do  not  have  these,  get  brass  ones  put 
in  by  the  general  tinker ;  it's  but  the  matter  of  drilling  and  head- 
ing. If  you  should  wish  to  retain  the  curve  of  the  lift,  it  should 
be  continued  until  nearly  striking  the  door  or  better,  in  a  some- 
what special  form.  Whatever  you  do,  leave  no  square  edges — 
round  them  off. 

Later  developments  of  the  latch  substituted  the  knob  for  the 
lift.  In  one  form  the  knob  was  part  of  the  latch,  being  centered 
with  the  pivot  on  which  it  turned.  Another  form  introduced 
the  knob  below  the  latch;  a  turn  of  the  former  operating  the 
latter  by  means  of  a  lever.  A  small  latch  similar  to  this 
form,  but  differing  in  that  the  knob  was  placed  directly  on 
the  latch  as  a  lift,  was  used  for  cupboards.     This  of  course  was 


80  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

fitted  with  no  device  to  operate  the  latch  from  the  inside.  This 
reminds  us  of  a  very  important  consideration  growing  out  of 
the  above  conditions  and  also  those  attending  the  use  of  the 
button.  As  an  invariable  rule,  always  fit  a  door  to  a  closet, 
cupboard  or  recess,  into  which  there  is  the  slightest  possibility 
that  a  human  being  can  squeeze,  with  a  device  for  opening  it 
from  the  inside.  In  so  doing  not  only  awkward  but  perhaps 
fatal  consequences  may  be  avoided.  Children  will  be  children 
as  long  as  the  world  shall  last;  it  is  best  therefore  not  to  provide 
any  traps  for  them  in  your  house. 

As  may  be  seen  from  the  illustrations,  there  are  considerable 
artistic  possibilities  with  the  exterior  latch.  With  care,  these 
are  less  liable  to  give  trouble,  particularly  with  the  front  door, 
considering  the  fact  that  the  latch  and  catch  have  been  attended 
to  as  suggested  for  the  interior  doors.  There  are  many  straight 
reproductions  made  from  old  models,  also  an  adaptation  in  which 
the  thumb  piece  springs  the  bolt  of  a  modem  mortise  lock.  This 
is  fitted  with  a  knob  or  another  grip  and  thumb  piece  for  the 
inside.  Although  a  combination  of  principles,  it  is  legitimate. 
There  is  perhaps  with  this  double  latch  notion  a  solution  of  the 
latch  problem  as  applied  to  new;  interior  work;  it  requires  how- 
ever, a  door  thick  enough  to  mortise.  As  for  the  practical  part, 
there  is  nothing  the  matter  with  the  workings  of  the  modern 
latch.  The  old  latch  has  often  queer  and  ingenious  methods 
of  locking;  commonly  however,  a  wooden  peg  was  used.  Some 
of  the  old  exterior  latches  were  rather  amusing  in  their  combina- 
tion of  metals.  Besides  being  wholly  of  iron,  brass  and  bronze, 
there  were  iron  and  brass,  iron  and  bronze  and  in  one  type  an 
ornamental  circlet  of  pewter  was  introduced  around  the  center 
of  the  grip.     This  last  was  a  common  form  of  interior  latch. 

If  there  were  any  good  box-locks,  their  use  would  perhaps 
be  preferable  to  the  latch  in  many  cases,  at  least,  for  interior 
use.  The  common  forms  were  of  iron  painted  black  and  the 
term  "box"  amply  described  them.  Some  large  examples  were 
enormous  and  their  keys  too  large  for  one's  pocket.  Had  these 
been  of  brass  they  \s^ould  have  been  interesting  as  bits  of  plain 
metal,  but  black  iron  on  white  seems  altogether  too  strong  a 
contrast.  If  these  had  perhaps  been  painted  a  dull  red  or  ochre, 
or  a  bronze  green,  the  effect  might  have  been  different.     The 


HARDWARE  81 


early  form  of  box-lock  had  a  wooden  boxing  and  examples  are 
often  met  with.  They  are  more  interesting  as  curiosities  how- 
ever, than  of  any  practical  value — the  key  being  a  great  draw- 
back. There  is  a  form  commonly  seen  on  our  coasting  passenger 
steamers  which  may  pass  muster.  But  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  brass  lock  requires  a  brass  hinge.  The  drop  handles  and 
escutcheons  of  some  of  the  more  ornamental  forms  were  delight- 
ful in  design,  but  the  former  seems  hardly  steady  enough  to 
compete  with  the  absolute  grip  of  the  knob  or  latch.  They  were 
surely  out  of  the  way  however,  when  not  in  use.  Then  too,  they 
really  belong  to  the  more  elaborate  structure.  With  the  French 
this  style  of  lock  is  still  used  and  by  them  has  been  made  a  thing 
of  beauty ;  it  seems  a  pity  that  it  has  not  more  popularity  with  us. 

The  mortise  lock  was  first  introduced  in  England  along  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  it  is  now  our  accepted 
type.  While  not  being  quite  so  true  to  the  principles  of  good  art 
as  its  predecessor,  the  box-lock — inasmuch  as  its  working  parts 
are  entirely  hidden — it  is  nevertheless  a  satisfactory  and  practi- 
cal article.  For  interior  doors  the  lock  should  be  fitted  with  the 
usual  spring  latch  and  dead  bolt ;  for  exterior  doors  a  heavier  lock 
should  be  used,  in  which  the  aforementioned  spring  latch  and 
dead  bolt  are  supplemented  by  a  spring  bolt.  This  spring  bolt 
is  naturally  duplicated  on  the  inner  vestibule  door  (if  such  exists) 
so  that  one  key  may  be  common  to  both. 

The  eiFective  parts  of  the  mortise  locks  are  naturally  such 
members  as  are  not  concealed  in  the  door — as  the  knobs  and 
escutcheons.  These  then  are  our  ornamental  possibilities  and  as 
the  modern  article  offers  several  reproductions  of  the  old  models 
we  may  safely  draw  from  them.  The  plain  and  the  slightly 
molded  round  brass  knobs  are  effective  because,  outside  of  their 
simple  lines,  the  material  of  which  they  are  made  is  attractive 
and  decorative.  The  plain  oval  brass  and  octagonal  glass  knob 
affords  a  better  grip  than  the  round  ones.  For  less  important 
locations,  the  white  porcelain  knob  may  be  used.  Wooden 
knobs  are  also  effective. 

Plain  escutcheons  which  include  the  knob  and  keyhole  are 
perhaps  better  than  the  two  isolated  units.  While  this  is  more 
modern  it  suggests  the  lock  better  and  somewhat  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  old  box-lock.     The  mortise  lock,  because  of  its  method 


82  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

of  application,  is  seldom  placed  on  the  door  where  it  naturally 
belongs — on  the  lock  rail.  This  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  if  so 
placed  it  would  destroy  the  strength  of  the  door  at  this  point. 
The  box-lock  has  not  this  difficulty. 

The  old  form  of  door  bolt  was  rectangular  in  section — not 
round.  Some  of  the  modern  reproductions  in  iron,  brass  and 
bronze  and  called  "Dutch"  door  bolts,  are  excellent  and  in 
harmony  with  the  latches. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  comparative  simplicity  is  the  dominant 
note  of  the  mass  of  Colonial  work,  and  that  often  the  tendency 
of  the  reproduction  is  to  over-elaborate  the  model.  One  with  any 
sense  of  observation  will  readily  note  such  modern  work  as  comes 
closest  to  the  simplicity  of  the  original.  Much,  however,  is  abso- 
lute replica.  Even  such  modern  units  as  the  bell-pull,  electric 
button  and  independent  name  plates  may  have  the  look  of 
Colonial  design.  The  latter,  however,  is  generally  cared  for  in 
certain  types  of  knockers  which  we  may  note  from  the  cuts. 
Right  here  it  might  be  well  to  state  that  all  modern  necessities 
which  do  not  properly  belong  with  the  style,  should  be  kept  as 
subdued  as  possible. 

The  knocker  is  a  useful  and  decorative  feature  of  Colonial 
hardware,  and  no  Colonial  house  should  be  without  at  least  one. 
It  never  fails  in  its  duty,  especially  in  a  moderate  sized  house. 
Even  if  supplemented  by  the  electric  bell,  it  is  still  useful.  The 
oldest  knockers  were  of  iron,  and  while  crude  were  far  from  un- 
interesting in  design.  Even  with  the  brass  name  plate  they  be- 
longed with  the  other  iron  fittings  or  with  such  fittings  combined 
with  a  limited  amount  of  brass.  Old  ones  are  very  apt  to  be 
somewhat  rust-eaten  and  in  purchasing  them  one  should  be  care- 
ful that  they  are  not  too  far  gone. 

Brass  or  bronze  are  undoubtedly  better  materials  than  iron, 
owing  to  the  tendency  of  the  latter  to  fill  up  with  paint  if  not 
carefully  done,  thus  destroying  the  design;  also  because  of  the 
aforesaid  tendency  to  rust  if  not  thus  protected.  With  the  older 
houses  and  iron  hinges,  iron  is  the  thing  however.  The  most 
common  form  of  the  knocker  was  that  in  which  the  hammer 
"straddled"  the  design,  its  pivots  generally  occupying  a  position 
at  its  extreme  width.  The  other  type,  which  did  not  perhaps 
admit  of  as  much  variation  of  design,  had  but  one  pivot.     In 


HARDWARE  83 


design  it  is  generally  the  elaborate  effort  that  is  of  the  later 
period.  Many  brass  reproductions  are  made,  many  of  them 
good. 

There  is  one  rather  important  item  in  connection  with  the 
name  plate  and  that  is  the  lettering.  The  modern  type  of  letter 
is  very  apt  not  to  fit.  If  one  secures  a  photograph  from  an 
old  tombstone  of  about  the  period  of  the  knocker,  he  will  have 
a  model  that  is  worth  following. 

Old-fashioned  windows  were  not  originally  hung  with 
weights,  although  the  lead  weight  may  have  been  added  later. 
The  top  sash  was  fixed  and  the  lower  raised  as  a  dead  weight. 
A  catch  at  the  side  served  to  hold  it  at  several  heights  and  also 
acted  as  a  lock.  The  raising  of  the  window  was  not  as  laborious 
as  might  be  supposed  owing  to  the  light  weight  of  the  sash.  A 
modern  "sash  balance"  adapted  to  the  purpose  may  be  had  of  the 
hardware  dealer.  It  is  a  coil  spring,  the  coil  box  of  which  is  let 
in  the  stile  after  the  manner  of  the  modern  pulley.  Some  sash 
slide  sideways,  but  examples  of  these  are  not  common.  As  the 
only  hardware  was  this  spring  catch,  there  is  little  to  be  said  of 
it.  With  modern  weighted  sash,  both  fastener  and  lifts  should 
be  of  brass  and  simple.  The  simple  common  forms  are  not  out 
of  harmony  with  Colonial  design.  If  you  are  inserting  new 
windows  in  new  walls  you  will  probably  use  the  weighted  sash. 

The  old-fashioned  window  shutter  antedated  the  blind.  Its 
fastener  which  secured  it  in  an  open  position  and  was  used  with 
the  blind  as  well,  was  highly  ornamental  and  of  varying  pat- 
terns. Although  slightly  more  trouble  to  manipulate,  it  was 
sure  and  did  not  get  out  of  order  as  many  of  our  modern  con- 
trivances are  apt  to  do.     The  hinges  were  of  the  strap  pattern. 

The  old-time  door-scraper  offers  delightful  possibilities.  It 
hangs  onto  the  skirts  of  the  hardware  list;  an  outsider,  but  im- 
portant. Being  the  work  of  the  local  blacksmith,  it  was  in  design 
like  some  of  the  best  old  outside  iron  latches,  an  expression  of 
local  art  and  hence  often  of  individual  style.  Such  scrapers 
were  naturally  affixed  to  the  great  stone  step. 

In  the  selection  of  your  hardware,  if  using  new,  avoid  on 
general  principles  the  new  "scheme."  Never  use  a  plated  metal; 
it  will  not  wear.  Buy  locks  that  have  good  steel  working  parts, 
aside  from  the  purely  artistic  side.     Remember  that  a  really 


84  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

cheap  article  cannot  be  otherwise  than  cheap.     Select  hardware 
that  fits. 

One  of  the  most  important  considerations  relating  to  hard- 
ware is  putting  it  in  place,  after  having  procured  it.  We  will 
try  to  consider  the  fitness  of  it  together  with  its  placing.  Our 
forefathers  were  very  successful  as  a  whole  with  the  designing  of 
units,  but,  in  combining  these  units  into  a  composition,  they  made 
as  many  failures  as  successes.  Some  of  their  blunders  are  so 
unwarranted  as  to  be  foolish.  As  a  general  thing  they  passed 
over  the  hinges  with  credit.  Sometimes  however,  a  specimen  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  door  necessitated  the  cutting  away  of 
part  of  the  back-mold  of  the  architrave  with  the  natural  effect  of 
mutilation.  Much  of  this  may  have  been  the  fault  of  the  owner's 
selection.  It  was  however,  with  the  adjustment  of  the  latch  that 
they  fell  most  deplorably,  and  here  again  it  was  often  the  design 
of  the  door  that  caused  the  fall.  With  the  inside  problem 
there  should  be  but  little  trouble  as  the  fitting  is  comparatively 
small.  Usually  it  was  only  necessary  that  the  handle  be  set  as 
near  as  possible  to  the  center  of  the  stile  and  the  latch  not  too 
far  from  the  middle  of  the  rail,  which  is  commonly  called  the 
lock-rail.  Of  course  it  is  very  important  that  this  rail  be  at  the 
proper  height ;  this  was  a  chance  for  another  blunder,  and  in  the 
earlier  work  they  generally  made  it.  It  is  with  the  outer  door 
that  the  real  trouble  occurred ;  you  have  but  to  note  old  examples. 

The  place  for  the  knocker  is  in  the  center  of  the  door  and  at 
a  convenient  height  for  manipulation.  If  on  a  double  door,  it 
may  balance  the  latch,  or  be  placed  above  it  on  the  same  stile. 
It  is  important  further  that  the  style  and  shape  of  the  knocker 
fits  that  of  the  door.  When  the  door  is  divided  by  several  hori- 
zontal rails,  the  knocker  may  approach  a  somewhat  squat  shape, 
and  is  perhaps  best  located  at  the  juncture  of  rail  and  stile — if 
the  same  be  feasible — or  even  a  trifle  above  it.  For  doors  with 
predominant  vertical  panels  a  more  vertical  knocker  may  be  used. 
This  last  type  can  also  be  used  on  a  many-paneled  door  by 
simply  placing  it  on  the  stile  rather  than  the  intersection  of  stile 
and  rail.  The  intermediate  type  may  be  used  with  any  door;  the 
result  depends  on  its  placing.  The  knocker  should  never  be 
wide  enough  to  interfere  with  or  destroy  the  architectural  lines 
of  the  door.     It  may  fill  the  full  width  of  the  stile,  but  such  is 


This  type  of  angle  surface-hinge  can 

be   nsefl    for  heavy   outer   doors   with 

ffodil    i-(sult~.      1 1  -I  iriiuilicns  the  door 


An   excellent  brass  knocker,   the  beauties  of 

which     are    largely;""  due    to    time    and     the 

elements.     (C.  L.) 


An    admirable    cast-iron    knocker    of 

rather     unusual     form     and     design 

(C.    L.) 


A    wroiight-iron    door    scraper         Iron   latch.    (C.  L.)        Wrougbt-iron    scraper.     (C.  L.) 


2M2JHf^SISMaMSMeMM3MSMeM^M3MeMa^MmraJSM3M^ 


feMeMaaSMMMSJMSJeMSMSMSMSJSMSMSMMSISfaHJHS^ 


HARDWARE  85 


the  limit.  In  this  case  the  lines  of  the  panel  moldings  still  pre- 
serve the  intention  of  the  door  design.  It  is  often  puzzling  to 
determine  just  what  knocker  really  belongs  with  the  rest  of  the 
door  fittings  and  it  is  most  difficult  to  lay  down  rules  which  shall 
effectively  govern  such  questions.  It  is  largely  one  of  common- 
sense,  taste  and  a  knowledge  of  things  Colonial.  It  should  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  such  details  are  largely  governed  by 
the  architectural  balance  of  the  unit  to  which  they  are  applied. 
Perhaps  after  one  has  looked  about  a  bit  and  studied  the  problem 
he  may  have  in  hand,  there  may  come,  as  is  often  the  case,  a 
certain  feeling  for  things  Colonial — a  certain  unclassified  sense 
which  absorbs  and  solves  without  effort  just  such  problems. 


Chapter  Six 
FURJVITURE 


UNDER  the  head  of  furniture  we  do  not  intend  to  limit 
ourselves  to  chairs,  tables,  etc.,  but  shall  consider  such 
necessities    as    suggest    themselves — perhaps    with    re- 
gret— after  the  carpenter  has  compromised  and  gone 
home  with  the  greater  part  of  our  bank  account. 

Early  plaster  walls  were  whitewashed  and  frequently  where 
lime  was  a  rarity,  a  clay  wash  was  used  instead.  We  mention 
this  more  for  the  benefit  of  the  primitive  and  simple  type  which 
may  utilize  a  white  or  claj'^-colored  calcimine  and  this  effectively. 
The  plain  wall  is  an  excellent  background  but  one  ought  never  to 
utilize  a  cartridge  paper  to  get  the  effect.  Whatever  medium 
one  employs,  the  dull  surface  should  result.  It  should  alwaj'^s  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  wall  surface  is  usually  a  background  and 
as  such  should  be  simple. 

Wall  papers  are  comparatively  new  and  if  we  remember 
rightly  the  picture  paper  was  its  first  form.  Miss  Kate  San- 
born, in  her  valuable  and  interesting  volume,  gives  us  a  clear 
idea  of  its  history  and  use.     Personally  we  are  not  enthusiastic 

86 


FURNITURE  87 


over  picture  paper;  it  is  only  in  its  later  forms,  when  brought 
into  tone  in  an  all-over  repeated  pattern,  that  it  takes  its  place 
as  a  subservient  wall  decoration.  The  first  types  of  an  enor- 
mous scale  seldom  fitted  their  architectural  setting;  they  hap- 
pened, and  happened  badly.  They  were  never  truly  a  back- 
ground for  anything  and  their  restfulness  was  about  as  soothing 
as  a  German  band  in  one's  cellar.  However,  they  were  a  phase 
of  Colonial  details  in  which  one  is  interested  and  which  one  likes 
to  see — almost  anywhere  but  in  one's  own  house.  If  any  at- 
tempt be  made  to  use  such  a  detail,  it  should  be  in  a  large  hall 
devoid  of  further  wall  embellishment;  and  remember — the  thing 
has  to  be  lived  with ! 

Some  of  the  early  all-over  patterns  were  hideous  in  color,  be- 
ing in  pure  reds,  blues,  and  yellows.  Tone  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  a  consideration  of  much  of  this  work.  The  redeeming 
feature  of  the  whole  thing  lies  in  the  later  efforts,  of  which  we 
frequently  see  beautiful  examples.  Fortunately  we  may  pro- 
cure papers  of  modern  manufacture,  which  often  duplicate  the 
old-time  product.  The  details  were  usually  small  in  scale  and 
the  units  of  design  arranged  in  a  diaper  pattern  and  ordinarily 
interrupted  by  vertical  bands  or  stripes.  As  the  ceilings  were 
low  as  a  rule,  this  vertical  emphasis  served  to  accentuate  the  ap- 
parent height,  and  where  the  dado  occurred  this  was  all  the  more 
necessary.  Naturalistic  flowers  were  the  common  units  of  de- 
sign, and  these  generally  flourished  as  bouquets,  as  the  contents 
of  baskets,  or  other  simple  and  unobtrusive  motives. 

Burlap  and  cartridge  paper  have  no  place  in  Colonial  design 
and  although  we  have  seen  the  burlap  used  as  a  substitute  for  the 
wide  board  in  the  plain  dado — with  considerable  effect — it  is 
really  more  permissible  in  a  modern  "Colonial"  than  in  the  real 
thing.  The  same  may  be  said  of  straw  matting  or  like  material, 
although  they  suggest  the  Oriental  just  enough  to  make  their 
use  plausible  in  rare  cases.  To  be  frank,  the  only  substitute  for 
the  wide  dado  board  is  painted  plaster  and  this  should  naturally 
project  beyond  the  line  of  the  plaster  above.  Of  course  if  one 
can  afford  redwood  and  it  seems  desirable,  it  can  be  procured 
in  considerable  width. 

It  might  be  well  to  state  here,  that  the  history  of  the  Colonies 
suggests  considerable  importation  of  "East  India"  goods  and  its 


88  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

adapted  uses,  as  well  as  its  influence  on  design  or  articles  of 
English  manufacture.  The  eastern  styles  had  therefore,  more 
influence  in  the  Colonial  home  than  any  other  outside  source. 

Early  window  fabrics  were  hung  on  small  wooden  rods 
supported  by  crude  wooden  brackets,  probably  without  curtain 
rings,  which  are  mentioned  later.  The  drop  curtain  was  not 
then  in  use  but  its  general  form  will  still  be  remembered  by 
some  of  us.  This  form  had  a  slot  and  engaging  trip  in  the  rod 
for  the  fastening  of  the  curtain,  and  the  whole  was  hung  on 
wooden  brackets  with  a  cord  and  tassel  as  a  lifting  agent. 

Right  here  we  are  going  to  take  advantage  of  the  reader 
and  shirk  our  responsibility  as  well,  by  suggesting  that  he  him- 
self consult  the  old  records,  particularly  the  inventories,  for  in- 
formation on  household  fittings  and  furniture.  Taking  a  date 
somewhat  later  perhaps,  than  that  of  the  building  of  your  house, 
thus  giving  it  time  for  the  accumulation  of  comfortable  furnish- 
ings, one  may  see  what  was  considered  the  thing  of  the  time  and 
what,  perhaps,  was  relegated  to  the  chest  or  garret.  Some  of 
these  old  inventories  are  very  explicit  and  exact. 

Properly  speaking,  the  door  hanging  should  not  be  used; 
with  the  Colonists,  the  door  was  a  thing  to  be  closed.  If  this, 
however,  be  insisted  on,  it  is  best  that  the  supporting  rod  should 
be  as  simple  as  possible,  perhaps  to  the  extent  of  using  the 
wooden  brackets.  Oriental  prints  or  other  fabrics  are  plausi- 
ble, yet  one  should  be  consistent  and  not  over-load  a  simple 
house  with  too  rich  fabric.  Stripes  should  run  up  and  down  as 
in  wall  paper  and  for  the  same  reason. 

Ceilings  should  follow  in  character  the  walls,  and  where  the 
latter  are  of  plaster,  there  should  be  at  least  plaster  (or  its  eff*ect) 
between  the  beams.  The  all-wood  efl*ect  properly  belongs  with 
the  early  wainscoted  walls.  Some  of  the  more  elaborate  and 
later  ceilings  had  stucco  cornices,  centerpieces  and  comerpieces. 

The  subject  of  floors  has  already  been  touched  upon;  we 
would  simply  remind  the  reader  that  a  hot  oil  or  dull  wax  finish 
should  be  preferred  to  high  gloss  and  varnish.  The  wax  is 
naturally  used  with  the  later  style.  Early  sanded  floors  are  out 
of  the  question  and  imitation  of  them  in  paint  impossible  with 
the  use  of  floor  coverings.  Ordinarily  one  would  cover  the  floor 
with  rugs,  unless  the  carpet  tradition  be  pleasing.     The  carpet. 


^5^^\^<^^^^i^k^^f^>^^i!^<^^^^<^^<3![3(^<^<^\^><^<^<^<^(^ 


.An  old  wall  paper   which  is  probably  more  interesting  as  an  antique  than  as  an  in- 
spiration  for  modern   treatment.     The  colors   in   the  original  are   strong  and   crude 


Two  examples  of  modern  papers  treated  in   the  Colonial   manner.      The   first   is  the 
sort  of  "picture"  paper  one  might  live  with;   the  second  is  effective  in   a  low  room 


An  old  hooked   rug  with  a  border   of   rag  braid.      There   is   a   charm   in   the   simple, 
uncertain  rendering  of  this  type  which  would  be  hard   for  the  trained  draughtsman 

to  imitate 


A  hooked  rug  designed  by  the  author  on  Indian  motives.     This  source  offers  much 
good  inspiration  if  its  translation  he  not  too   frankly  Indian   in  line  or  color 


FURNITURE  89 


however,  belongs  to  the  parlor  and  sleeping-rooms  rather  than  to 
the  living-room,  which  in  olden  times  was  the  kitchen.  If  one 
has  utilized  this  last  for  such  purposes,  he  naturally  keeps  much 
of  the  old  kitchen  flavor,  although  modern  ideas  of  comfort  de- 
mand the  introduction  of  details  that  effect  a  somewhat  mixed, 
though  not  necessarily  objectionable,  whole.  The  rag  carpet, 
which  one  naturally  falls  back  upon,  is  still  made  in  certain  sec- 
tions of  the  country  and  would  probably  be  easy  to  get  from  the 
manufacturers  of  the  rag  rug,  which  has  been  on  the  market  for 
several  years.  The  one  trouble  with  the  latter,  excellent  in 
every  other  way,  lies  in  its  light  color,  causing  it  very  quickly  to 
display  dirt. 

People  are  too  apt  to  omit  the  rug  when  making  a  list  of 
Colonial  furnishings,  though  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  recorded 
at  a  very  early  date.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the  rag  rug 
and  by  this  we  refer  to  that  made  on  a  loom,  carpet  fashion. 
The  braided  rug  is  another  thing  and  probably  more  familiar  to 
most  of  us  than  the  aforementioned  loom  product.  They  are 
not  difficult  to  procure  in  the  country,  more  especially  new  ones ; 
and  their  shape,  either  round  or  elongated,  fits  them  to  many  a 
space  which  for  other  shapes  would  prove  awkward.  Much 
taste  may  be  displayed  in  the  making  of  this  form  of  rug,  even 
if  it  is  evolved  from  a  single  length  of  braided  rags.  We  say 
single  length  because  the  spiral  form  was  most  common,  but 
sometimes  we  find  it  made  with  joined  ends — a  series  of  rings. 
'Often,  too,  we  find  a  bit  of  carpet  used  as  a  center  but  this 
seems  to  have  been  a  later  notion  and  is  surely  not  an  im- 
provement over  the  other  form.  The  trouble  with  the  usual 
attempts  at  design  are  that  they  are  too  variegated;  too 
striped;  too  labored.  Breadth  of  effect  and  quiet  simplicity 
is  often  entirely  sacrificed  to  longing   for  strong  contrast. 

Another  rug  floor  covering  is  the  hooked  rug  of  rather 
later  date  than  the  braided  article.  A  piece  of  strong  bur- 
lap serves  as  the  foundation,  while  the  rag  strips  are  hooked 
into  it,  pile  fashion.  The  loops  are  then  sheared,  giving  a  crude 
carpet  effect.  Although  there  are  several  arts  and  crafts 
colonies  making  this  style  of  rug,  the  general  tendency  is 
toward  other  effects  in  design,  unlike  the  ordinary  country  ones, 
which,  barring  their  woeful  stumbling  over  animal  motives,  is 


90  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

more  creditable  than  otherwise.  Perhaps  this  last,  if  we  be 
allowed  a  choice,  is  more  what  we  may  wish,  its  sources  being 
direct.  Generally  to  save  the  edges,  one  or  more  braided  strands 
are  sewn  about  the  outside.  Sometimes  this  is  carried  further, 
giving  a  braided  rug  with  a  hooked  center,  but  we  have  never 
seen  an  example  that  has  been  quite  satisfactory. 

The  Oriental  rug  is  ancient  enough  to  have  been  used  with 
the  settlement  of  the  country,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  such  were  the 
case,  to  any  extent  at  least.  At  that  early  stage  local  prosperity 
was  a  thing  of  the  future  and  it  was  this  prosperity  that  made 
foreign  importation  possible.  We  are  told  that  it  was  first  used 
as  a  table  cover,  but  this  is  not  the  proper  place  for  it.  That  it 
belongs  on  the  floor  and  there  only  in  houses  of  a  later  date  and 
substantial  mien,  is  self-evident.  It  naturally  does  not  belong 
in  the  living-room  with  the  kitchen  atmosphere,  where  every- 
thing bears  the  imprint  of  the  homespun,  but  rather  where 
the  ivory-white  of  the  walls,  with  mahogany  furniture  and 
Lowestoft  china,  requires  its  supplementary  effort  to  complete  a 
refined  whole. 

The  Oriental  cotton  print  makes  an  effective  and  inex- 
pensive table  covering  as  well  as  window  hanging,  although  we 
may  frequently  find  modern  fabrics  approximating  the  old  de- 
signs, and  as  we  generally  have  to  fall  back  on  the  modern 
article,  one  should  saturate  himself  with  the  spirit  of  the  real 
thing  and  sally  forth. 

The  general  public  is  probably  not  aware  that,  in  the  early 
days,  paint  was  such  a  rarity  as  to  be  practically  non-existent. 
This  of  course  refers  to  its  application  to  buildings  and  not  to 
signs.  We  have  seen  old  doors  and  other  interior  finish,  brown 
with  the  mellowness  of  age.  Even  when  paint  came  into  use 
there  was  much  inside  the  house  that  was  devoid  of  paint  and 
this  well  down  toward  the  Revolutionary  war.  While  the  great 
kitchen  and  pantry  with  perhaps  the  lean-to  shed  were  brown 
as  a  nut;  the  front  of  the  house  was  resplendent  in  white,  and 
while  the  kitchen  side  of  the  door  rejoiced  in  its  natural  naked- 
ness, the  reverse  side  had  hidden  its  grain  under  an  artificial 
coat. 

This  later  woodwork  was  naturally  pine  while  that  of  the 
earlier,  or  wainscot,  was  of  oak.     In  our  reclamation,  it  may  be 


FURNITURE  91 


that  oak  or  local  pine  are  not  obtainable  in  the  desired  width 
and  if  so,  perhaps  cypress  or  western  pine,  fir  or  redwood  may 
be  used  as  a  substitute.  Of  course  stain  and  dead  finish  will 
probably  be  required.  There  is  a  chance  here,  surely,  to  gain 
effects  not  usually  attempted.  Naturally  one  would  not  care  to 
tear  off  good  finish  to  effect  such  ends,  because  the  old  kitchen 
(the  room  we  have  all  had  our  eyes  on)  was  as  a  rule  eventually 
painted.  In  some  cases  it  might  be  possible  to  remove  the  paint 
by  burning,  if  care  be  used,  but  of  course  the  surface  of  the  wood 
should  not  be  disturbed  or  marred — a  difficult  operation.  We 
have  made  a  point  of  all  this,  because,  while  there  is  a  chance  one 
may  strike  the  unpainted  thing,  there  is  also  the  possibility  of 
the  new  living-room  with  the  earmarks  of  the  kitchen. 

While  the  unpainted  interior  may  last  indefinitely,  the  ex- 
terior, being  exposed  to  the  weather  which  hastened  its  deteriora- 
tion, was  probably  to  receive  paint.  If  one  is  desirous  of  re- 
taining the  weathered  effect  it  can  be  done  with  creosote  stain, 
with  a  later  application  of  hot  oil.  The  oiling  should  be  re- 
newed at  intervals  the  same  as  painting.  The  stain  should  not 
be  too  dark  in  the  first  place  as  the  wood  is  apt  to  darken  with 
age.  Whatever  the  result,  it  is  better  to  go  slowly.  There  is  no 
inconsistency  in  a  painted  exterior  with  an  unpainted  interior, 
only  if  one  would  come  within  the  line  of  safety,  it  is  best  to 
use  a  dull  red  paint  (Indian  Red)  for  interiors. 

While  we  are  on  the  subject  of  paint,  it  might  be  well  to 
speak  a  word  on  the  subject  of  color.  We  all  know  that  a  house 
j)ainted  white  appears  larger  than  if  done  in  any  other  color, 
but  do  we  all  understand  that  red  and  yellow  are  positive,  while 
blue  is  a  retiring  color?  Green  and  purple  hold  flexible  positions 
which  depend  on  the  amount  of  predominance  of  the  positive 
or  retiring  color  used  in  their  composition.  White  is  naturally 
more  positive  than  either  pale  blue,  green  or  black  gray. 

Now,  as  in  our  interior  color  plays  an  important  part,  we 
are  bound  to  consider  it  and  consider  it  well.  The  placing  of 
our  wall  planes  may  be  determined  by  its  aid;  a  small  room 
made  to  appear  larger,  a  larger  one  smaller.  The  plaster  wall 
is  naturally  on  a  plane  slightly  back  of  our  dado  and  other 
finish;  therefore  if  the  latter  be  white,  the  wall  tone  should  be 
of  a  slightly  darker  note  and  of  a  predominant  color  that  re- 


92  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

cedes  rather  than  advances.  Naturally,  if  our  wall  tint  be  re- 
tiring, it  should  not  be  too  much  in  contrast  to  our  finish;  if  it 
be  much  darker  it  requires  the  touch  of  positive  colors  to  bring 
it  forward. 

By  such  means  we  are  able  to  make  our  ceiling  higher  or 
lower  and  to  prevent  our  floors  flying  up  and  hitting  us  in  the 
face ;  howling  red  is  not  a  good  floor  color  anyway. 

Old  unpainted  wood  has  its  own  color,  and  other  adjacent 
surfaces  must  be  brought  into  line  with  it.  Kitchen  walls  of 
course  must  be  plain,  for  wall  paper  and  the  kitchen  are 
strangers.  In  speaking  of  the  kitchen,  we  mean  the  old-time 
one  which  we  may  have  appropriated  for  a  living-room. 

As  we  have  already  stated,  the  several  enclosing  planes  of 
a  room  should  be  considered  as  backgrounds  for  embellishments. 
Therefore  the  furniture,  hangings,  rugs  and  the  like  should  be 
stronger  in  tone  but  harmonious,  as  it  is  against  all  of  these  that 
the  lamps,  china,  clocks,  and  bric-a-brac  find  their  backing. 
Harmony,  the  key-note  to  successful  decoration,  is  to  be  found 
in  color  as  well  as  line. 

Furniture  generally  suggests  the  antique  and  the  collector, 
and  while  we  would  hardly  discourage  the  gentle  art  of  getting 
fleeced,  we  would  state  that  much  may  be  procured  in  replica 
that  will  probably  save  expense  in  the  end.  Our  best  furniture 
dealers  carry  at  times  much  that  is  decent  in  design,  and  if  one 
is  familiar  with  the  styles,  one  might  do  much  worse  than  to 
investigate.  New  furniture  has  the  advantage  of  having  its 
life  before  it.  Then  too,  there  are  many  who  manufacture 
handicraft  styles  and  sell  direct.  Their  notices  are  constantly 
seen  in  the  various  "house"  papers.  Some  even  sell  the  goods 
in  an  unfinished  state,  so  that  one  may  color  to  match  conditions, 
but  here  we  must  use  caution  in  choosing  our  colors,  as  only  such 
as  suggests  old-time  material,  whether  new  or  weathered,  should 
be  used.  Much  of  this  sort  of  product  is  very  like  that  used  in 
the  early  kitchens: — the  wood  settle,  the  high  straight-backed 
chair,  the  Windsor  and  the  ancient  types  of  rocker.  As  to  the 
rocking-chair,  a  caution:  be  sure  to  get  the  old  form;  many 
types  have  the  modern  rockers  and  more  than  likely  the  type 
never  had  rockers  at  all.  The  old-time  rocker  was  short  and 
dignified;  one  had  to  be  very  dignified  to  use  it  without  getting 


FURNITURE  93 


an  upset.  In  order  to  check  this  tendency  to  topple  over,  we 
have  tried  rubber  on  the  ends  of  the  rockers — such  rubbers  as 
the  plumber  uses  on  the  stool  cover.  This  scheme  has  proved 
effective;  it  holds  the  center  of  gravity. 

The  mass  of  early  furniture  was  extremely  simple  and 
crude.  If  one  ever  gets  within  easy  distance  of  Old  Salem, 
one  can  gather  much  valuable  information  by  visiting  the  Essex 
Institute.  This  institution  has  recently  purchased  an  old  house 
of  the  type  prior  to  1700  and  is  furnishing  the  same  in  the  man- 
ner of  the  times;  it  is  really  worth  one's  while.  We  may  men- 
tion also  the  "House  of  Seven  Gables,"  likewise  recently 
restored. 

There  has  been  so  much  written  on  old  furniture  that  one 
should  get  a  fairly  good  idea  of  the  subject  by  taking  notes  from 
the  mass  of  material.  Old  inventories  help  us  greatly  here  in 
giving  the  list  of  plausibilities.  We  find  that  oak  was  the  com- 
mon early  wood,  much  of  the  furniture  brought  from  the  other 
side  being  of  this  material.  Besides  this  they  had  black  and 
white  walnut,  cherry,  and  in  fact  most  anything  that  worked 
easily.  It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  mahogany  was  not  used 
for  the  making  of  furniture  to  any  extent  until  toward  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eighteenth  century,  at  which  time  tools  were  perfected 
in  England  for  its  more  successful  handling.  It  is  found,  how- 
ever, in  small  scattered  quantities,  prior  to  1700  and  slowly 
grew  in  favor  after  this  date.  The  Boston  fire  of  1760  gives  us 
many  inventories  in  which  mahogany  lumber  is  recorded,  yet  its 
quantity  was  but  small  in  comparison  to  other  woods.  The  New 
England  cabinet-maker  and  the  amateur  have  produced  much 
furniture,  particularly  of  a  simpler  sort.  They  are  even  said  to 
have  sold  it  into  the  other  Colonies,  which  seems  probable. 

Old  inventories  were  generally  explicit  in  declaring  goods 
as  old  or  up-to-date;  it  was  every  man's  dream  to  keep  abreast 
of  the  times.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  much  "old"  furniture 
was  destroyed  by  our  forefathers  to  make  way  for  the  advance 
of  fashion. 

The  question  naturally  arising  after  one  has  familiarized 
oneself  with  the  styles  and  periods  is:  what  can  we,  with  pro- 
priety, put  in  our  house?  Let  us  reason  this  out  together;  it 
is  not  difficult.     The  early  stages — supposing  we  take  the  chair 


94  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE     " 

as  a  key — were  stiff  and  straight  backed;  their  relaxation  occurs 
gradually  at  first,  increasing  to  our  own  time.  Naturally  one 
would  not  care  for  the  "milking"  stool  of  the  first  settlers,  so 
this  may  be  discarded.  The  form  or  bench  might  go  perhaps 
as  a  dining-room  feature  in  connection  with  the  simple  crude 
and  straight-backed  chairs  and  the  plain  Tudor  table.  One 
may  perhaps  find  some  forms  of  "mission"  in  the  new,  which  with 
some  little  alteration,  like  chamfering,  will  come  rather  close  to 
the  furniture  of  the  period.  For  other  than  such  purpose, 
"mission"  furniture  is  entirely  unfit.  While  the  straight-back 
chair  may  serve  in  moderation  for  other  rooms  of  the  house, 
one  really  needs  some  chairs  that  offer  comfort.  Again  there 
may  be  a  possibility  to  a  certain  extent  in  the  "mission"  but  one 
will  probably  have  to  fall  back  on  early  rocker  forms  and  crude 
"Windsor"  types.  Upholstery  should  be  avoided;  the  cushion 
if  you  will,  but  by  no  means  the  stuffed  sort.  Besides  all  this, 
there  is  the  delightful  oak  furniture  of  the  Elizabethan;  nor  is 
there  any  real  danger  from  it,  even  though  it  may  be  a  castle's 
plunder  in  a  plowman's  hut.  One  thing  the  Colonist  had  rev- 
erence for  was  the  heirloom;  though  his  own  cast-offs  were  value- 
less, this  was  sacred.  So  if  there  be  examples  of  a  date  prior  to 
the  fixed  date  of  your  house,  there  is  no  harm.  The  fixed  date  is 
one  which  approximates  the  last  apparent  development,  regard- 
less of  the  date  of  the  building.  We  have  no  authority  for  the 
term  "fixed  date";  it  might  be  anything  else.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  it  is  much  in  the  position  of  Mrs.  Wiggs'  duck — we've  "just 
named  it."  Every  condition  must  have  a  handle  to  swing  by; 
ours  has  just  grown.  To  get  back  to  our  subject: — the  danger 
from  inconsistency  lies  not  so  much  in  our  getting  back  of  our 
fixed  date,  as  from  getting  ahead  of  it;  the  masterpieces  of 
Chippendale  do  not  belong  in  a  pre-Georgian  interior. 

The  early  period  is  the  most  difficult  of  adaptation  to 
modem  conditions,  and  fortunately  or  unfortunately  there  are 
very  few  of  us  who  will  be  called  upon  to  do  it.  Perhaps  we 
might  divide  our  time  into  four  periods  as  a  matter  of  conven- 
ience. The  first  or  pre-Georgian,  prior  to  1700 — straight-back, 
and  crude,  with  smatterings  of  the  Elizabethan,  perhaps  a  httle 
crude  Windsor;  early  Georgian,  1700  to  1750 — ^lighter  straight- 
back,    more    turning,    Windsor    and    some    Dutch    influence; 


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Two    old    mirrors    whose    eagle    emblems   show    them    to    be    later    than    the    Revolu- 
tion.     The  first   has  a  gilt   in-frame   with   an   out-frame  of  miliogany   veneer.      The 
second   is  all   gilt  and   is  supported   on   the  common   brass   rests 


An  old-time  lantern  which  suggests  that, 
with  other  types,  we  have  some  good 
precedents     for     the     modern     drop-light 


Inlaid    lyre    hat-tree    aiul    umbrella    rack; 

also    a    tip    table.      The    tree    is    adapted 

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FURNITURE  95 


middle  Georgian,  1750  to  1800 — Chippendale  and  others,  ma- 
hogany period;  later  Georgian,  1800  to  1830 — same  as  the 
previous  period,  some  Empire  or  if  in  Greek  Revival,  Empire 
and  other  Classic  motives.  This  of  course  is  not  absolute  and 
there  is  much  overlapping.  However,  it  gives  us  a  basis  to  work 
on,  and  our  history  of  furniture  should  help  us  to  pull  things  into 
shape. 

We  have  already  touched  on  the  possibilities  in  connection 
with  furniture  stores;  we  might  go  farther  and  include  the  de- 
partment store.  There  are  also  to  be  found  occasionally  in  the 
suburbs  the  cabinet-maker  and  general  repairer  who  deals  in  old 
furniture  as  well.  The  point  here  is  not  with  the  old  furniture, 
however,  but  the  reproduction  made  during  slack  times  from  such 
old  examples  as  may  have  been  collected.  These  are  frequently 
careful  copies,  similar  in  construction  and  made  from  old  and 
seasoned  wood  picked  up  with  the  old  furniture.  These  copies 
are  as  good  in  every  way  as  the  original  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, and  as  cheap  in  the  end,  unless  one  has  unusual  luck  with 
an  unusually  well  conditioned  original. 

Returning  to  the  department  store: — we  secured  some  few 
years  ago  at  a  clearing  of  stock,  two  mahogany  rush-bottom 
chairs  for  fifteen  dollars.  One  was  a  well  known  Dutch  model 
and  the  other  a  common  English  translation.  From  another 
similar  store  we  procured  an  oak  gate-legged  table  in  true  style, 
and  at  a  normal  figure.  There  is  surely  a  chance  here  for  one 
who  knows  what  he  is  buying.  Unless  your  original  happens 
to  have  been  in  the  family,  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  the  re- 
production. It  will  stand  usage  at  least,  whether  your  original 
will  or  not. 

We  mentioned  in  an  early  chapter  in  connection  with  the 
axis  of  design,  the  possibility  of  using  a  heavy  and  important 
piece  of  furniture  to  emphasize  a  terminal  in  this  line,  provided 
there  existed  no  plausible  architectural  excuse  for  effecting  this 
end.  We  repeat  this  suggestion,  therefore,  believing  it  to  be 
often  a  great  help  in  securing  a  balance  and  repose  where  lesser 
details  are  apt  to  be  shifting  continually.  Frequently  the  fire- 
place has  no  plausible  opposition  to  carry  its  center  across  the 
room.  In  such  cases  the  cabinet  or  secretary  may  serve  the 
purpose  well. 


96  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

Iron  furnished  the  material  for  the  first  fireplace  fixtures. 
Even  later  when  the  Colonists  had  become  well-to-do  and  could 
afford  brass,  the  iron  fixture  still  had  its  popularity,  extending 
on  into  the  period  of  cast  metal.  Thus  we  see  the  cast-iron  fire- 
dog  or  andiron,  often  very  creditable  in  design  and  in  thorough 
harmony  with  the  cast-iron  fire-frame  it  is  intended  to  embellish. 
The  blacksmith,  who  made  our  nails  and  spikes,  also  furnished 
our  fireplace,  and  many  of  his  kind  to-day  will  make  a  creditable 
showing  with  this  sort  of  work.  If  one  has  not  an  old  model 
to  go  by,  a  drawing  made  with  wax-crayon  on  tin  or  iron  will 
make  absolute  comparison  possible  between  the  draft  and  the 
progressing  article. 

The  size  of  the  fire-dog  in  relation  to  the  fireplace  opening 
is  a  question  which  only  the  eye  can  settle  in  the  case  at  hand. 
We  are  frequently  tortured  with  the  sight  of  the  diminutive 
specimen,  entirely  lost  in  the  vastness  of  a  decent  sized  fireplace. 
As  the  fire-dog  is  made  in  many  shapes ;  is  chunky  or  slim,  deli- 
cate or  brutal,  it  would  be  folly  to  lay  down  definite  rules  for  its 
height  in  relation  to  that  of  the  fireplace  opening.  We  may 
suggest,  however,  that  a  slim  style  may  be  from  two-thirds  to 
three-quarters  and  a  chunky  pattern  from  one-half  to  three-fifths 
< — all  of  which  depends  on  its  design  and  character.  We  can 
assert  one  thing  without  fear  of  blunder  and  that  is,  while  we 
may  choose  the  large  fire-dog  for  the  large  fireplace  and  small 
for  the  small,  yet  the  scale  of  details  should  never  conflict  with 
those  of  the  mantel  trim  or  the  general  scale  of  the  fire-opening. 
In  other  words,  never  use  a  design  with  small  and  delicate  de- 
tails as  an  accessory  to  a  large  fireplace. 

Another  rather  important  article  not  generally  considered 
as  a  fireplace  accessory,  is  the  warming-pan  and  yet  we  occasion- 
ally see  it  standing  beside  the  mantel,  as  an  ornament  merely. 
The  leather  thong  frequently  found  attached  to  its  handle  sug- 
gests its  suspension  from  a  peg  beside  the  bellows.  Besides  its 
decorative  side,  that  of  its  intended  utility  is  not  to  be  despised. 
Passed  between  the  sheets,  filled  with  a  few  glowing  coals,  it 
will  remove  both  damp  and  chill  and  render  the  bed  something  be- 
sides a  necessary  cold  plunge.  In  this  we  speak  not  from  hear- 
say, but  from  experience. 

Modern  adaptation  of  the  Colonial  in  dealing  with  the  din- 


FURNITURE  97 


ing-room,  has  stopped  the  wainscot  (paneled  or  unpaneled) 
just  short  of  the  ceiling  and,  by  the  introduction  of  an  enlarged 
dado  cap,  has  found  room  for  the  accommodation  of  china — 
purely  a  decorative  feature.  We  make  no  exception  to  this  as  an 
adaptation,  but  it  is  not  authentic  and  not  to  be  considered  in 
our  problem.  Our  forefathers  put  such  things  where  they  could 
be  reached,  first  of  all;  that  they  happened  to  be  decorative  was 
not  their  fault.  Instead  of  being  generally  scattered  they  were 
collected  on  shelves  singly  or  in  open  cupboard  form,  and  the 
plate  shelf  was  more  than  likely  to  have  a  rack  or  strip  across 
the  front.  Any  old  house  which,  being  historical,  has  been  fur- 
nished in  the  old  style  and  thus  made  a  museum  for  the  antique, 
will  probably  offer  some  suggestions  of  this  sort.  If,  however, 
one  desires  an  independent  shelf  to  be  affixed  to  the  wainscot, 
it  should  be  planted  frankly  on  it — an  acknowledged  after- 
thought. Unless,  perhaps,  one  is  restoring  the  wainscot,  in 
which  case  the  paneled  form  may  have  a  rail  provided.  True 
wainscot,  as  we  all  know,  runs  to  the  ceiling. 

As  the  earmark  of  antiquity  is  denoted  by  the  general 
scarcity  of  metal  work,  there  is  much  chance  for  crude  forms 
in  wood.  Shelf  brackets  and  the  like  should  be  made;  also  door 
buttons  and  pulls.  If  one  is  handy  with  tools,  there  is  a  chance 
for  him  here,  but  be  sure  to  let  the  marks  of  the  jack-knife  show; 
do  not  sand-paper  it  all  out. 

Having  supplied  a  place  for  our  little  vanity  in  old  china, 
pewter  and  glass,  the  next  thing  is  to  display  it.  We  may  add 
that  such  should  rarely  be  done  on  the  mantel.  Perhaps  it 
is  very  like  suggesting  that  one  sleeps  after  retiring,  but  we  must 
inflict  the  advice.  Choose  good  specimens  and  not  too  many 
and  let  their  arrangement  be  a  composition,  in  which  the  placing 
is  neither  too  crowded  nor  too  open.  Remember,  that  as  one 
goes  back,  the  average  condition  becomes  simpler  and  simpler; 
there  were  very  few  utensils  in  the  oldest  houses. 

Sets  of  china  are  hard  to  pick  up  and  awkward  to  display 
afterwards,  unless  confined  to  the  buffet.  Isolated  pieces  are 
more  plentiful  and  far  more  satisfactory  in  a  composition  as 
they  offer  diversity  in  size,  color  and  form.  Although  wood  and 
pewter  were  used  in  the  early  period,  they  should  be  kept  sepa- 
rate in  display.     If  they  do  not  express  different  conditions  of 


98  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

life,  they  at  least  denote  the  best  and  the  every-day  bonnet. 
China  and  glass  may  associate  if  necessary,  but  if  one  has  enough 
of  either  to  make  a  separate  group,  it  is  best,  owing  to  the  dif- 
ferent background  required  for  each.  Brass  utensils  are  gen- 
erally foreign  in  use  to  china  and  consequently  stand  apart. 

So  much  for  the  display — for  utility,  one  hardly  cares  to 
risk  even  old  Staffordshire  of  the  commonest  sort  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  domestic.  Even  if  careful,  she  can  hardly  have 
the  interest  in  its  welfare  that  we  have.  If  one  can  handle  this 
personally,  let  it  be  old  china  by  all  means,  but  rare  pieces  ought 
never  to  be  exposed  even  to  the  bare  possibility  of  accidents. 

Fortunately  for  this  problem,  as  with  the  furniture,  de- 
signers have  discovered  sometime  since,  that  old  shapes  and  pat- 
terns could  hold  their  own  with  any  they  could  devise.  Hence 
there  is  rather  a  liberal  field  to  select  from  in  the  way  of  replica. 
Of  course  there  is  the  familiar  Willow  pattern,  also  the  onion 
pattern.  Many  old  factories  or  their  successors  are  reproduc- 
ing popular  old-time  designs.  One  may  get  excellent  Minton, 
if  one  can  stand  the  price,  and  we  remember  a  cheaper  repro- 
duction of  an  early  Minton  pattern,  strong  in  Oriental  sugges- 
tions, which  calls  up  visions  of  powdered  coiffure,  full  skirts 
and  dainty  slippers. 

As  the  light  is  necessarily  a  part  of  teh  table  accessories,  we 
will  speak  of  it  here.  There  is  nothing  softer  or  more  restful 
than  candle  light.  For  the  dining-table  the  candelabra  or  even 
a  group  of  candlesticks  do  excellent  service.  Old  brasses  are 
not  so  difficult  to  get  and  even  the  reproduction  is  not  exorbitant. 
For  cheaper  types,  the  Colonial  glass  offers  good  forms.  Fo5» 
general  lighting  and  reading  there  is  the  glass  lamp,  which  may 
be  attached  to  either  gas  or  electricity  in  one  way  or  another. 
Of  course  this  is  a  necessary  evil,  not  easily  disposed  of  by  ignor- 
ing it.  Perhaps  the  old-time  lantern,  if  suspended  and  fitted 
with  modern  lights  might  serve  to  preser\^e  a  little  of  the  flavor 
of  the  older  days.  In  any  event  it  is  the  candle  or  the  early 
lamp  that  we  must  base  our  designs  on ;  it  is  manifestly  impossi- 
ble to  follow  the  suggestions  of  the  pitch  knots  of  primitive 
methods. 

As  a  wall  or  table  fixture,  the  old  brass  candlestick  may 
settle  the  problem.     If  the  former,  let  it  be  set  on  a  shelf  or  on 


A    New    England    chair    of    pine,    with 
rush    seat    and    of    Dutch    influence 


A    modern     Mahogany    chair,     modelled 
on   New  York  Dutch   lines 


A     common     and     interesting     form     of 

the     Chippendale.        Such     chairs     have 

refinement 


Mahogany     chair     of     l-^mpire     influence. 

This    and    the    one    above    were    from    a 

department  store 


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B 

J 

The   only   criticism   on    the   above    simple   and   uncrowded    arrangements   would   be   on 

the   conflict   in    styles   of   table   and   chairs   in    the    upper   picture.         Disconnected   units 

may   vary;    these   should    harmonizt' 


FURNITURE  99 


the  mantel.  Not  only  should  its  location  be  here,  but  it  should 
be  fastened  and  thus  substitute  for  the  usual  bracket  or  chande- 
lier. This  may  effect  our  ends  if  we  do  not  insist  on  the  electric 
bulb  or  gas  mantel.  The  former  may  be  tolerated  in  the  raw  but 
if  a  shade  is  required  or  the  mantel  used,  it  is  best  to  lapse  into 
the  lamp  period,  using  the  old  glass  lamp  standard  with  the  spher- 
ical globe. 

In  early  days  the  picture  was  a  rarity ;  the  simpler  dwelling 
knew  it  not.  The  sampler  was  about  the  only  thing  among 
the  masses  and  was  given  the  place  of  honor  over  the  mantel. 
It  is  extremely  interesting,  and  one  handy  with  the  needle  can 
readily  copy  or  originate  something  of  the  sort  or  they  can  often- 
times be  bought  at  arts  and  crafts  shops.  Later  comes  the 
silhouette,  which  one  occasionally  sees  rejuvenated  at  fairs  and 
summer  places  of  amusement.  Frequently  too,  these  artists  are 
quite  successful  in  catching  a  profile. 

What  one  may  really  rely  on  is  the  print;  first  the  un- 
colored  and  later  the  colored.  The  first  we  naturally  connect 
with  Hogarth,  who  began  to  produce  about  1736.  Then  come 
the  colored  prints,  English  and  French.  These  cover  a  consider- 
able range — religious,  sporting,  dainty  French  society,  etc.  The 
engraving  is  a  thing  apart  and  could  stand  very  well  alone ;  it  is 
used  however,  as  a  key  plate  for  the  application  of  color,  which 
is  often  done  by  hand.  Fortunately  we  can  buy  these  of  a 
modern  manufacture,  which  are  perhaps  as  effective  as  the  old 
specimens. 

The  hanging  of  pictures  was  first  accomplished  with  the 
aid  of  a  wooden  peg,  nail  or  hook;  the  picture  molding  and 
cord  was  not  then  in  the  field.  Personally  we  do  not  care  for  the 
looks  of  picture  cord  or  wire.  There  is  a  brass  wall  hook  which 
can  be  procured  in  several  sizes,  over  which  the  screw  eyes  in  the 
back  of  the  frame  are  hung.  For  heavy  pictures  the  strong 
screw  hook  may  be  used  and  the  weight  supported  by  the  rests 
one  commonly  sees  used  for  old  mirrors.  As  the  majority  of 
old  houses  are  fairly  low-studded,  the  picture  can  be  hung  flat 
or  nearly  so. 

The  arrangement  of  pictures  should  be  carefully  thought 
out  beforehand  to  avoid  the  making  of  unnecessary  holes.  An 
important  picture  may  serve  to  assist  the  axis  of  design  or  to 


100  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

balance  some  other  important  detail  or  one  of  its  kind.  Colonial 
design  frequently  seeks  for  balance  and  symmetry,  but  such 
should  never  be  too  set.  Smaller  pictures  may  be  grouped 
about  a  larger  one.  The  best  scheme  is  to  locate  the  important 
units  and  let  the  lesser  play  up  to  them  with  more  or  less  loose- 
ness, as  the  general  problem  may  seem  to  dictate. 


Cha/)ter  Sepen 
A  PRACTICAL  £XAMJPLE 


WHEN  one  has  become  the  possessor  of  an  old  house 
he  is  much  in  the  position  of  a  man  who  is  giving  an 
illustrated  lecture  for  the  first  time,  with  the  dif- 
ference however,  that  he  is  a  double  personality;  for 
while  he  is  delivering  his  lecture,  he  is  at  the  same  time  by  no 
means  an  unimportant  member  of  his  audience.  Nor  do  he  and 
his  outside  audience  meet  on  equal  terms ;  they  will  be  ever  chang- 
ing and  passing  on,  forgot ;  he  cannot  pass  on — cannot  forget. 

He  would  quite  naturally  impress  the  outside  world,  but  in 
this  he  must  first  have  felt  that  impression  and  lastly  must  live 
with  it.  And  it  is  better  that  such  living  should  be  peaceful  and 
the  associations  one  of  pleasure,  rather  than  a  forced  and  irri- 
table companionship.  Therefore  one  must  consider  the  thing 
seriously. 

Instead  of  laying  down  rules  to  illustrate  one  method  of 
handling  the  following  problem,  we  will  try  to  make  the  method 
clear  in  the  manner  of  our  working. 

101 


102 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


To  begin  with,  in  the  original,  as  near  as  we  can  gret  at  it, 
bared  of  all  the  good  and  bad  conditions  of  later  dates  (mostly 
bad),  we  have  a  six-room  plan  in  two  stories,  which  stories  were 
about  7  ft.  8  in.  and  7  ft.  2  in.  respectively.  The  arrangement  is 
one  of  the  early  forms  used  in  the  Connecticut  Valley,  but  the 
house  itself  is  not  as  old  as  its  plan.  It  has  however,  a  good 
solid  oak  frame,  reasonably  sound  and  fairly  level. 

The  outer  covering  is  of  double 
grooved  siding,  which  when  fitted  to- 
gether shows  an  over-lap  as  in  com- 
mon clapboarding.  This  was  laid 
directly  on  the  frame  without  board- 
ing— an  old  method,  but  the  old-time 
birch  wall-filling  does  not  occur. 
There  was  no  gutter  to  the  roof, 
which  is  hipped  and  of  about  a  thirty- 
degree  pitch.  The  old  chimney  was 
built  largely  of  stone  laid  in  clay 
mud  (an  old  custom)  with  occa- 
sional interjected  and  apparently 
meaningless  pieces  of  oak  timber. 
The  visible  portions  of  the  fireplaces 
were  of  brick  laid  up  in  lime  mortar,  with  brown  freestone  caps 
and  hearths.  The  caps  were  in  good  order  but  the  hearths  were 
cracked  and  much  the  worse  for  fire ;  the  whole  chimney  was  un- 
safe and  had  been  unused  for  some  time. 

When  the  house  came  into  our  hands  there  was  a  long 
telescopic  addition  of  one  and  one-half  stories,  attached  to  the 
rear — in  width,  from  the  corner  of  the  pantry  to  the  post  be- 
yond the  door.  The  first  unit  was  evidently  a  new  kitchen ;  the 
next  and  the  next,  unclassified  and  all  of  different  dates.  Had 
its  outreach  not  been  stopped  by  a  fairly  large  apple  tree,  it 
might  have  gone  on  and  on  into  the  river.  A  covered  piazza 
extending  around  four  sides  of  the  house  was  of  that  period 
when  the  decadent  wooden  "Gothic"  ran  riot  and  the  jig-saw 
was  a  thing  to  be  played  with  rather  than  used.  Then  too,  the 
windows  on  the  front  and  ends  had  been  narrowed  for  window 
weights  and  also  cut  down  to  the  floor  with  the  obvious  purpose 
of  affording  access  to  the  piazza,  which  feat  was  easy,  if  one 


Fig.    14 — The    old   plan   as   it  ex- 
isted    before     alteration,     showing 
the  arrangement  of  early  days 


»  y 


qq/? 


Before  alteration,   this   '"gem"   of  a   piazza   nearly   girdled  the  house,   cutting  out  direct 

svinlight  from  all  the  lower  rooms.       Otherwise  the  block  of  the  structure  had  not  been 

tampered  with  to  any  extent 


The   substitute    for   the   old   piazza    was   a   bit   more   in   keeping   with   the    period   of   the 
house.    The  "kick"  to  the  roof  of  the  "outdoor"   room  is  a  localism  probably  borrowed 

from    the    Dutch 


i 


Front  of  the  altered   house   from  the   street.     Tlicre   has  been   no   effort  to  make  a   di 
tinguished   thing;    rather    a    restful    habitation   and    home 


A   view   from   the   water  side  and  rear.     The  open-air   room  commands  a  full   sweep  of 
the    river   and   makes   a   good   sun-parlor,    if   desired 


r^Jc}MM^S^SclMEM^M^S^M^MM&I^M^MEM^S^J^M^M^S^M^^ 


A  PRACTICAL  EXAMPLE  103 

cared  to  crawl.  In  its  origin  our  house  was  surely  the  work  of 
the  craftsman. 

The  first  problem  was  the  rebuilding  of  the  old  chimney, 
which  was  torn  down  to  the  level  of  the  first  floor.  In  the  liv- 
ing-room or  old  kitchen,  the  fireplace  was  reduced  from  five  feet 
to  four  feet  in  width  because  the  original  was  much  too  close  to 
the  woodwork  to  suit  our  fancy.  All  masonry  was  kept  two 
inches  from  the  wood  work  and  air  chambers  were  built  in  the 
flanking  jambs  as  an  extra  precaution.  In  the  parlors  we  had 
a  three-foot  opening  and  in  the  room  marked  "B"  (which  was 
probably  either  a  bedroom  or  office)  we  got  a  two  and  one-half 
foot  opening.  A  light  segmental  arch  was  turned  back  of  the 
brick  facing  above  the  caps  to  relieve  them  of  what  little  weight 
might  occur  above.  The  old  caps  were  re-dressed  and  reset,  but 
cut  out  slightly  at  the  back  to  accommodate  the  Murdock  throat 
and  damper.  For  the  hearth  concrete  was  used,  but  while  it 
answered  very  well  for  the  smaller  openings,  the  larger  one, 
owing  to  some  imperfection  or  perhaps  from  the  excessive  heat, 
crumbled  slightly  in  front  of  the  fire  and  so  we  were  obliged 
to  introduce  a  raised  hearth  of  fire-brick,  a  possibility  we  had 
fortunately  foreseen.  This  raised  hearth  has  at  least  one  practi- 
cal advantage  outside  of  its  natural  properties;  it  forms  a  defi- 
nite line  of  demarcation  betwen  the  fireplace  and  the  room  and 
hence  there  is  a  limit  set  to  the  loose  ashes.  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  state  that  we  used  tile  flue  linings;  their  advantage  is 
evident. 

It  will  be  noticed  from  the  illustrations  that  black  bricks 
have  been  introduced  into  the  facing  of  the  large  fireplace  as 
well  as  into  the  topping  out  of  the  chimneys.  Why  did  we 
use  this  distinctively  Southern  feature?  We  found  authority 
for  it  in  the  basement  of  an  old  house  not  two  miles  distant — • 
very  simple  it  is  true,  yet  existing.  One  naturally  wonders 
what  inspired  them.  To  get  these  we  were  obliged  to  dip  hot 
brick  in  hot  tar;  the  result  was  a  dead  and  lusterless  black. 

It  was  first  intended  by  the  owner  simply  to  rebuild  the 
chimney  and  let  the  rest  hang  over  for  a  while,  but  a  careful  in- 
spection discovered  so  much  to  be  done  to  get  the  house  into 
possible  shape  that  it  was  decided  not  to  waste  time  and  money 
on  temporary  repairs.     Therefore  after  patching  the  roof  for 


104 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


the  winter  we  got  at  the  problem  of  the  new  layout,  that  it 
might  be  ready  in  the  spring,  and  as  fast  as  anything  definite 
could  be  decided  upon  for  the  carpenter,  we  let  him  have  it  to 
help  the  thing  along. 

As  to  the  plan  here  shown,  it  is  necessary  to  understand 
that  modern  requirements  differ  from  those  of  old  times  and  in 
introducing  the  piazza,  for  instance,  we  have  made  the  house  of 
a  later  date  than  it  really  is.  As  a  visible  feature  and  in  order 
to  avoid  conflict,  we  have  introduced  a  column  which  follows  a 
certain  local  craftsman's  crudeness,  thus  going  back  to  the  early 
types  and  methods  of  our  original  house. 

It  was  decided  at  the  start  that  the  "telescope"  and  fancy 
piazza  had  better  go.  This  left  the  original  block  of  the  house 
and  a  far  simpler  problem  to  contend  with.     As  to  utilizing 

the  old  plan,  it  seemed 


best  that  the  old 
kitchen  should  serve 
as  a  living-room — one 
of  its  original  uses. 
This  was  away  from 
the  street,  but  the 
outlook  up  and  down 
the  river  demanded  it. 
Then  too,  the  house 
was  near  the  street 
and  herein  was  an- 
other reason.  The 
fairly  sunny  parlor 
was  to  be  used  as  a 
sleeping-room  for  the  older  generation  and  the  old  bedroom  as  a 
reception-room.  The  old  pantry  plus  the  old  back  stairs  were  to 
afford  space  for  the  new  main  staircase,  the  old-time  front  stairs 
remaining  as  they  were.  While  the  old  kitchen  was  ample  as 
to  size  and  relative  placing  to  serve  well  the  purpose  of  a  living- 
rpom,  yet  its  window  area  was  inadequate.  We  therefore  in- 
troduced the  square  bay  in  as  simple  a  form  as  possible  so  as  not 
to  disturb  the  general  simplicity  of  the  exterior.  As  the  bay 
was  not  a  feature  of  this  particular  type  in  the  original,  care  was 
taken  to  keep  it  simple  and  in  line.     The  built-in  seat  suggested 


Fig.  15 — Remodeled  plan — first  floor.  Oa  R,  Open- 
air  Room;  E,  Entry;  V,  Veranda;  L,  Lavatory;  S. 
Stairs;  S  R.,  Servant's  Room;  b,  Buffet;  s.  Stand- 
pipe;    L   Y.,   Laundry  yard;    R    R.,    Reception   room 


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I 

A  PRACTICAL  EXAMPLE  105 

■ 

itself  naturally  and  by  making  a  raised  cover  we  gained  stow- 
away room  for  papers,  magazines  and  the  like.  There  was  one 
overhead  cubby  in  the  parlor;  we  replaced  this  and  added  an- 
other in  the  reception-room. 

Perhaps  the  first  impression  one  gets  in  comparing  the 
original  house  and  the  addition,  is  that  of  the  tail  that  wags  the 
dog,  but  this  problem  is  one  of  many  similar,  in  which  the  house 
belonged  in  the  family  and  still  was  not  sufficient  in  size  to  meet 
new  requirements.  We  have  done  what  we  could  to  emphasize 
the  old  house. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  rear  wall  of  the  new  ell  does  not 
correspond  with  the  similar  wall  of  the  old  house  and  on  this 
account  the  eaves  on  this  side  are  naturally  lower  in  order  to 
keep  the  roofing  planes  together.  This  was  made  necessary  on 
account  of  the  old  windows  in  the  reception  room  and  guest 
chamber,  which  prevented  our  bringing  the  addition  near  the 
street.  The  position  of  these  windows  was  very  good  and  hardly 
worth  while  to  disturb.  We  fancy  that  the  better  sort  of  old 
craftsman  would  have  done  much  the  same  with  this  problem. 

The  open-air  room,  which  replaces  the  removed  kitchen  ad- 
dition, has  sheathed  walls  and  ceiling,  but  the  floor  is  the  same 
as  in  the  rest  of  the  house.  The  wooden  walls  give  it  a  little 
more  freedom,  more  the  porch  character,  and  as  a  matter  of 
fact  it  is  really,  as  its  name  suggests,  as  much  of  an  open  as  a 
closed-in  feature.  The  construction  of  the  room  is  rather  un- 
usual; the  sill  being  dropped  below  the  floor  timbers  so  that  the 
lower  sashes,  which  are  weighted,  may  be  dropped  into  pockets 
and  hinged  window-stools  dropped  back  over  them.  The  upper 
sashes  are  hinged  and  swing  to  the  ceiling,  and  thus  the  whole 
window  area  can  be  utilized;  in  damp  weather  they  are  readily 
closed.     Outside  screens  complete  the  utility. 

The  particular  points  of  the  plan  may  be  readily  seen. 
The  kitchen  end  is  merely  a  modem  arrangement  without  re- 
gard to  Colonial  style.  There  is  room  enough  and  not  too  much. 
The  cook  has  a  sink  and  shelves  out  of  the  way  of  any  passing 
traffic;  her  pantry  is  ample  and  well  lighted;  she  is  in  reach  of 
the  trademan's  door  and  can  see  readily  who  is  at  it;  two  win- 
dows on  either  side  give  cross  ventilation  while  a  register  ovef 
the  stove  connects  with  a  vent  flue  in  the  chimney,  which  is 


106 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


warmed  by  the  range  flue.  The  kitchen  dresser  is  handy  for 
both  cook  and  second  girl  and  together  they  have  a  small  room 
of  their  own  with  a  good  river  view.  There  is  room  in  the 
pantry  for  a  small  ice-chest  which  may  be  filled  from  the  out- 
side by  opening  the  swing  window  and  dropping  an  inclined 
platform. 

The  reception  room  is  easily  accessible  from  both  the  front 
and  side  doors,  the  latter  of  which  is  most  used.  The  servants 
can  answer  the  bell  with  but  little  intrusion  on  the  rest  of  the 
house  and  from  the  side  door  see  the  visitor  before  opening 
the  front  door.  There  are,  as  there  should  be,  two  doors  between 
the  kitchen  quarters  and  the  rest  of  the  house. 

The  basement  is  reached  by  stairs  from  the  hallway  in 
the  new  part,  and  at  their  foot  is  the  outer  door  to  the  laundry 
yard.  Owing  to  the  sharp  grade,  full-sized  windows  were  pos- 
sible in  the  end  and  yard  side,  the  stonework  coming  only  to 
the  height  of  the  sills  in  the  latter  instance.  The  laundry  occu- 
pies the  end  under  the  pantry,  servants'  room  and  the  major 
part  of  the  kitchen.  Next  to  this  and  the  outer  door  is  a  toilet. 
The  coal  bunkers  are  beside  the  wall  under  the  hallway  and 
entry,  while  the  space  below  the  dining-room  is  reserved  for  the 
future  heater.     The  old  cellar  is  poorly  lighted  and  is  used  for 

little  more  than  a 
store  room.  Un- 
der the  open-air 
room  is  a  light 
area  accessible 
both  from  the  old 
cellarway  and  the 
laundry  yard. 

The  second  story 
has  required  more 
alteration  of  the 
old  part  than  on 
the  first  floor;  and 
with  the  single- 
chimney  plan  this 
were    content    to    go 


Fig.    16 — Remodeled   plan — second   floor.    C,    Chamber;    G 

C,  Guest  chamber;   F  H,  Front  hall;  Hy,  Hallway;  D  R, 

Dressing-room;    B,    Bath;   C,   Closet;    S,    Servant's    Room; 

T  R,  Trimk  room;  T,  Trapdoor. 


is    always    the    case.     Our    forefathers 

through  one  room  to  reach  another;  we,  however,  object  to  this. 


A  PRACTICAL  EXAMPLE  107 

The  old  chimney  took  up  all  the  space  as  in  the  lower  story, 
but  we  were  obliged  to  rake  it  toward  the  old  front  stairs  to 
gain  the  hallway  to  the  front  corner  room.  We  also  steal 
from  the  guest  chamber  to  continue  this  to  connect  with  the  new 
part.  In  the  original  plan  there  were  no  fireplaces  on  the  sec- 
ond floor  and  it  was  deemed  best  to  leave  them  out  in  the  alter- 
ation in  favor  of  the  small  closets.  We  provided,  however, 
three  small  flues  for  stove  connection  in  the  three  chambers,  in 
case  of  emergency.  The  small  closets  are  small,  but  they  are 
only  for  immediate  use,  the  large  closet  oif  the  trunk  room  of- 
fering plenty  of  stowaway  room.  The  chamber  over  the  old 
kitchen  has  been  divided,  partly  to  help  our  hall  and  also  to  get 
a  dressing-room. 

The  new  staircase  is  well  lighted  by  borrowed  light  from 
the  two  windows  in  the  long  hallway.  The  staircase  is  centrally 
located  and  reaches  the  vital  points  of  the  second  floor  easily. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  plan  that  the  servants  are  cut  ofl* 
from  the  rest  of  the  house  by  a  large  flat  and  curtained  arch. 
Within  this  section  are  the  bedrooms,  bath  and  ample  closet 
room.  There  is  one  point  which  might  have  been  bettered;  the 
family  bath  is  not  centrally  located  as  regards  the  chambers. 
Even  if  left  as  it  is,  an  extra  toilet  would  have  been  well  placed 
in  some  handy  part  of  the  trunk  room.  The  idea  of  its  present 
location  lay  with  the  owner  and  the  idea  was  to  reduce  the  very 
considerable  plumbing  into  one  upright  stack.  Economically 
it  is  a  success. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  there  is  a  standpipe  in  the  hallway 
of  the  new  part.  This  is  of  two-inch  galvanized  pipe  and  ex- 
tends from  cellar  to  garret.  It  is  fed  from  a  reservoir  on  the 
hill  above — the  common  water  supply  of  the  house.  On  the 
three  floors  proper,  a  fifty-foot  linen  hose  hangs  on  a  bracket 
rack,  ready  at  all  times  for  use.  With  this  all  parts  of  the  in- 
terior can  be  reached.  In  the  cellar  the  hose  is  one  hundred 
feet  in  length  to  allow  for  out  of  doors  use. 

Having  considered  the  plan  as  a  plan  let  us  consider  the 
general  finish  and  design.  The  building  itself  belongs  to  the 
middle  of  what  is  commonly  called  the  Georgian  period.  Its 
style  is  extremely  simple  in  both  outline  and  detail.  Its  loca- 
tion on  the  map  is  about  the  middle  of  the  state  of  Connecticut, 


108  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

and  on  the  Connecticut  River.  This  last  being  an  old-time 
highway,  it  was  natural  that  there  should  be  much  intercourse 
between  the  various  settlements  bordering  it,  and  hence  one  may 
naturally  look  for  a  great  similarity  in  the  style  of  building  over 
this  entire  territory.  We  were  fortunate  in  having,  at  the  start, 
numerous  photographs  and  some  measured  details  of  the  period 
above  mentioned;  it  saved  our  making  a  special  expedition  for 
them. 

In  looking  up  and  down  our  little  stretch  of  country  one 
notices  great  similarity  of  design  and  detail  and  its  examples, 
owing  to  the  great  waterway,  are  often  scattered.  In  measuring 
details  in  our  own  little  town  we  find  that  up  to  the  later  work 
our  cornice  moldings,  for  instance,  are  apparently  from  the  same 
tool,  regardless  of  dates.  One  old  farmhouse,  now  burned, 
which  was  a  survival  of  the  third  stage  of  development,  and 
still  retained  the  old  "summer"  beams  and  the  wooden  ceiling, 
had  a  cornice  almost  identical  with  one  on  a  building  which  was 
not  built  until  fifty  years  later.  In  it  was  to  be  found  much 
of  the  Gothic  influence  and  its  original  windows  had  slid  side- 
ways in  a  single  sash,  betwixt  the  girt  and  the  dado  cap,  which 
last  was  identical  with  the  window-stool.  To  such  sources  as  these 
have  we  resorted  to  help  us  in  our  problem  of  reconstruction. 

Let  us  take  our  interior  first,  bit  by  bit  and  see  what  was 
done  with  it.  In  the  old  part  it  was  found  necessary,  in  laying 
the  new  floor,  to  level  up  with  furrings  on  top  of  the  old  floor; 
buildings  will  settle  and  get  out  of  level.  We  used  for  our  new 
floor  best  grade  Southern  pine,  of  narrow  width.  In  the  ell, 
on  the  second  floor,  we  laid  but  a  single  floor  in  order  to  save 
every  inch  possible — there  being  considerable  difference  in  the 
depth  of  the  old  oak  floor  beams  and  the  shallowest  we  could 
contrive  with  our  modern  spruce  beam.  When  the  top  of  the 
window  casings  do  not  come  too  close  to  the  ceiling  it  is  best 
not  to  do  this  as  it  gets  rather  dirty  and  is  apt  to  be  scarred 
during  the  balance  of  the  construction.  As  it  was  we  waited 
until  the  masons  were  out  of  the  way  before  we  laid  it  and  even 
then  it  had  to  be  scraped.  Judging  from  the  way  in  which  the 
ceiling  cut  into  the  tops  of  the  casings  on  the  first  floor,  and 
from  the  style  of  the  glass,  we  judged  that  our  original  windows 
were  not  as  high  by  one  width  of  siding. 


A  PRACTICAL  EXAMPLE  109 

When  the  windows  had  been  enlarged,  it  is  probable  that 
new  doors  were  hung  as  well  and  at  the  same  time  new  back- 
boards put  on  to  the  casings.  All  this  work  was  old,  but  it  was 
not  the  original  by  any  means,  nor  was  there  anything  to  show 
what  the  original  might  have  been  except  the  ancient  front  doors. 
However,  our  second-story  doors  and  casings  were  far  too  good 
to  abandon  and  we  retained  them  with  their  design  of  four  up- 
right panels.  In  the  kitchen  and  other  working  parts  of  the 
house  the  new  doors  were  of  cypress  in  a  natural  and  dead  finish. 
Elsewhere  they  were  painted  white.  Brass,  loose-pin  butts  were 
used  throughout  except  when  the  door  or  its  butt  side  was  of 
natural  wood,  in  which  case  a  similar  japanned  butt  was  used. 
The  old  door  knobs  were  all  of  white  porcelain;  we  substituted 
octagonal  glass  on  the  lower  story  to  go  with  the  white  paint 
and  black  to  go  with  the  natural  wood.  These  last  were  also 
used  on  the  second  story,  while  with  the  white  paint  we  used 
mahogany. 

The  one  feature  of  the  living-room  is  the  fireplace;  the  seat 
in  the  bay  is  too  simple  to  be  so  classed.  Our  brickwork  has  al- 
ready been  explained,  but  our  modern  embellishment  is  a  bit 
more  complicated.  The  architrave  or  form  about  the  brick- 
work is  after  a  similar  motive  in  our  (unfortunately  destroyed) 
farmhouse.  It  has  a  few  novel  Gothic  bumps  in  its  makeup. 
The  mantel  itself  is  very  close  to  the  old  doorcap  of  the  farm- 
house. This  too  differs  from  anything  we  have  before  seen  and 
we  are  glad  of  it.  But  the  over-mantel  is  not  a  Georgian  fea- 
ture, neither  is  it  Elizabethan;  it  is  a  victim  of  circumstances. 
When  the  owner  became  possessed  of  the  property  there  was  an 
old  rosewood  piano  with  a  few  bits  of  very  good  inlay  about  it. 
This  piano  was  an  old  friend:  what  should  he  do  with  it?  As  a 
piano  it  was  hopeless,  but  the  inlay — .  Well,  we  thought  it 
over  for  a  moment  and  then  determined  upon  the  place  above 
the  mantel  for  it.  It  was  perfectly  natural  that  we  put  the 
piano  cover  over  the  mantel  to  get  rid  of  it  and  preserve  it  at  the 
same  time.  As  it  was  not  large  enough  to  fit  we  framed  it  with  a 
natural  cypress  frame  which  had  the  added  advantage  of  mak- 
ing the  transition  to  the  white  paint  less  abrupt  and  startling. 
Then  too  there  was  more  space  at  the  sides  than  at  the  top  and 
bottom  and  we  introduced  a  small  ornament  of  dull  gold  tem- 


110  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

pered  with  color.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  surmounting  cap  is 
a  bit  of  the  backboard  of  the  door  casings  and  further  that  it  is 
in  line  with  these  members  on  either  flank.  This  is  a  bit  archi- 
tectural, but  there  was  no  real  good  reason  to  do  otherwise. 

In  our  adjoining  bedroom  the  old  simple  mantel  was  re- 
placed. This  had  an  architrave  very  similar  to  those  of  the  door 
and  window  and  below  the  shelf  was  a  well  proportioned  dentil 
molding.  In  the  reception-room  the  old  mantel  was  also  re- 
tained but  as  it  had  a  cart-before-the-horse  arrangement  of 
panels  in  the  frieze,  we  filled  these  with  composition  ornaments 
to  control,  but  not  to  hide  its  oddity. 

In  our  new  dining-room  there  was  little  to  hinder  us  with  our 
feature,  which  is  the  fireplace.  From  the  plan  and  the  pictures 
it  will  be  seen  to  be  well  balanced.  It  is  mostly  of  wood  and 
such  little  plaster  as  occurs  in  the  surface  space  around  the 
doors  has  been  painted  like  the  woodwork  to  count  as  such. 
There  is  a  bit  of  the  local  crudeness  in  the  buffet  and  its  bal- 
ancing motive,  the  door  into  the  entry.  Our  beam  is  clumsy 
and  our  corbels  in  the  sofiit  of  the  flat  arches  are  relics  of  our 
old  farmhouse  and  hence  of  Gothic  origin.  The  chimney  breast 
proper  will  be  noticed  for  its  simplicity;  the  few  ornaments  are 
introduced  to  get  terminal  spots  and  produce  lines.  We  are 
so  far  from  the  common  thing  that  we  feel  we  may  do  this. 
Otherwise  it  follows  closely  in  its  molding  and  general  sugges- 
tions an  old  house  at  Windsor  which  still  retains  some  of  the 
earmarks  of  the  early  period  both  in  its  moldings  and  in  its  over- 
hanging second  story. 

And  lastly  of  the  hall,  and  this  resolves  itself  into  the  stair- 
case. Now  this  feature  is  one  of  the  last  stages  of  the  Gothic 
development  merging  into  the  Georgian,  which  however,  we  often 
find  in  the  earlier  Georgian  examples.  The  solid  or  box  stringer 
is  easily  likened  to  the  side  of  a  stepladder  and  it  was  by  means 
of  a  stepladder  that  the  old  Elizabethan  chambers  or  lofts  were 
reached.  Our  posts  are  a  bit  off  from  the  plain  square  models, 
but  it  seemed  desirable  to  get  the  extra  strength  here  and  at 
the  same  time  avoid  the  necessary  bulkiness  of  the  square  post. 

A  word  as  to  decoration: — ^the  walls  of  the  kitchen,  to- 
gether with  the  servants'  rooms  and  the  bathrooms  have  been 
painted,  which  allows  of  easy  cleaning.     The  walls  of  the  recep- 


(^!fe€ifeG!&d&  dfecifedE)  dRd&dbdfe  d&ta&clfe  dBd&d&d&  d&d&d&  d&  d&d&d& 


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A  PRACTICAL  EXAMPLE  111 

tion-room  are  done  in  flat  fresco  color  of  a  pale  yellow.  Those 
of  the  living-room  are  covered  with  paper  of  a  medium  brown 
in  a  pattern  suggesting  the  texture  of  the  Eastern  grass  fabrics. 
A  limited  and  judicious  use  of  dull  gold  adds  richness  to  the  ef- 
fect. This  paper  was  chosen  above  the  pattern  sort  because  it 
was  to  serve  largely  as  a  background  for  pictures.  The  dining- 
room,  being  intended  to  carry  itself  without  much  pictorial  aid, 
is  of  a  very  good  semi-realistic  tree  pattern  in  grey  monochrome 
with  touches  of  subdued  green.  A  couple  of  the  chambers  show 
examples  of  the  perpendicular  stripe  with  the  usual  diaper  pat- 
tern of  flowers. 

The  exterior  of  the  main  building  has  undergone  but  little 
alteration,  except  in  the  raising  of  the  long  windows  and  the 
addition  of  a  molded  water-table  across  the  front.  The  sash 
are  made  with  the  old-fashioned  heavy  muntins,  but  the  size  of 
the  glass  has  been  increased  from  its  probable  original  size. 
Its  shape  too  suggests  the  general  block  of  the  building  and  is 
more  in  harmony  than  a  narrower  form  might  be.  In  reality 
it  is  a  compromise  which  considers  in  a  measure  the  difficulty 
attending  the  cleaning  of  small  panes.  Old-time  glass  was 
small  from  the  conditions  attending  its  manufacture. 

The  additions  consist  of  an  elaboration  of  the  front  en- 
trance, the  new  oval  window  above,  the  bay  window  at  the  rear 
and  the  new  piazza.  There  has  also  been  added  a  hanging  gut- 
ter and  this  is  always  best  when  the  original  has  no  installed 
gutters. 

The  original  front  door  was  a  double  affair  and  so  narrow 
that  to  use  one-half  of  it  was  a  nuisance.  The  new  doors 
were  similar  in  design  but  wider.  The  doorway  is  a  composite 
and  has  its  origin  in  different  originals.  There  is  little  that  is 
copied  absolutely  and  this  little  is  in  the  molding  details.  The 
oval  window  above,  which  is  really  a  part  of  the  motive,  draws 
its  inspiration  from  other  sources. 

Our  piazza  has  been  made  to  balance  that  this  characteristic 
of  the  house  proper  might  not  be  lost  sight  of.  Our  cornice  is 
as  simple  as  is  practical,  and  certain  members  in  it  correspond 
and  line  up  with  the  top  of  the  window  casings.  Our  columns 
and  pilasters  have  a  "double"  entasis,  that  is  they  are  curved 
from  the  base  to  the  cap,  while  in  the  architectural  conceptions 


112  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

■— ^— — — — ^ 

the  lower  portion  is  straight;  we  have  full  authority  for  this. 
The  piazza  rail  and  balusters  are  as  simple  as  possible. 

The  recess  in  which  the  service  steps  enter  the  kitchen  is 
suggestive  in  line  of  the  old  woodshed  addition.  This  it  will 
be  noticed  has  an  architrave  bare  of  moldings  and  the  cap  is 
made  up  of  the  case  moldings  of  the  windows,  with  the  top  of 
which  it  is  in  line.  The  elliptical  arch  is  a  true  form,  not  con- 
structed with  three  segments  of  a  circle,  as  is  likewise  the  case 
with  the  oval  window  in  the  front  of  the  main  house.  The  small 
windows  above  the  recess  serve  only  to  light  the  closets  and 
therefore  we  have  considerable  blank  wall  about  our  recess,  a 
telling  but  generally  a  difficult  effect  to  obtain. 

The  bay  window  added  to  the  living-room  is  so  inconspic- 
uous a  feature  as  to  speak  for  itself  in  the  picture,  but  the  long 
sweep  and  terminating  curve  of  the  roof  of  the  open-air  room 
is  apt  to  make  a  New  Yorker,  unfamiliar  with  the  valley,  bristle 
with  interrogation  points.  No,  let  us  hasten  to  assure  him,  we 
have  not  borrowed  from  the  Dutch  and  in  so  doing  mixed  up 
style.  The  old-time  craftsman  did  this  for  us  and  there  are 
many  existing  examples  in  the  valley  to  testify  to  the  fact. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  rear  of  our  ell,  owing  to  the 
abrupt  falling  off  of  the  ground,  looms  up  in  the  air  consider- 
ably. Therefore  the  laundry  yard  with  its  wistaria-covered 
enclosure  will  serve,  besides  its  initial  purpose,  as  a  screen  to 
eliminate  some  of  the  height  of  the  offending  ell. 

The  foregoing  will  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the  problem 
presented  and  our  method  of  solving  it.  It  may  not  be  a  per- 
fect solution;  probably  it  could  be  bettered;  but  we  feel  that  it 
is  a  fairly  creditable  effort  and  we  are  firmly  convinced  that 
our  course  in  following  the  local  craftsman,  rather  than  the  wider 
source  of  inspiration  and  the  very  correct  taste  of  the  average 
architect,  is  the  only  sane  method  of  handling  an  old  house. 
One  does  not  set  the  same  palette  for  every  sort  of  picture. 


Chapter  Eiffht 
OUT£UJLDIJVGS,  ETC. 


WITH  all  structures  independent  of  the  house,  the  ex- 
teriors, like  that  of  the  latter,  should  keep  to  the  old 
style  as  far  as  possible,  however  modern  their  interiors 
may  be.  Amongst  outbuildings,  the  barn  stands 
prominent.  In  its  original  form  it  housed  all  kinds  of  stock. 
The  stable  is  an  aristocratic  barn,  intended  only  for  horses.  Al- 
though ancient  enough  for  all  practical  purposes,  it  does  not 
occur  commonly  in  Colonial  design,  except  in  the  South:  most 
people  used  the  barn. 

When  the  barn  divorced  itself  from  the  general  roof,  it  took 
unto  itself  new  dignity.  The  outshot,  which  in  the  parent  form 
housed  the  cattle,  was  retained;  the  main  body  of  the  structure, 
used  as  a  threshing  floor,  became  a  through  passage  with  double 
doors  at  either  end,  and  the  outshot  was  repeated  in  reverse 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  building,  making  a  balanced  plan. 
One  can  see  at  a  glance  that  its  kinship  with  church  construction 
was  very  close: — the  central  nave  and  flanking  aisles.  Perhaps 
our  using  the  term  outshot  in  this  way  may  confuse  those  who 

113 


114  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

will  remember  it  as  an  ell  form  with  an  independent  roof.  With 
the  cathedral  the  outshot  is  the  aisle;  in  barn  construction  the 
framing  places  it,  although  it  is  generally  under  the  same  roof 
as  the  barn.  The  interior  posts  flanking  the  threshing  floors 
are  really  the  limits  of  a  main  structure,  from  which  the  out- 
shots  might  be  removed  without  injuring  its  true  intention  and 
utility. 

Although  we  still  have  with  us  a  few  examples  of  the  pre- 
Georgian  house,  there  are,  as  far  as  we  are  aware,  no  barns  of 
this  period,  such  as  would  stand  for  examples.  Whether  the 
Pennsylvania  stone  barn  can  be  dated  as  far  back  as  this,  is  a 
question  for  the  local  historian.  However  this  may  be,  there 
is  enough  of  tradition  preserved  in  the  Connecticut  Valley  of 
the  early  and  middle  Georgian  period  to  show  what  it  might 
have  been  and  it  is  very  improbable  that  any  radical  change  took 
place  in  its  development.  Being  an  offspring  of  the  house,  it 
inherits  its  construction.  It  is  a  simple  edition,  adapted  to  its 
new  and  exclusive  purposes.  Less  important  than  the  house 
in  many  ways,  it  was  very  plain — often  to  the  extreme  of  bare- 
ness; nor  did  the  change  of  style  afl'ect  it  to  the  degree  that  it 
did  the  house.  Consequently  we  find  it  much  the  same  through- 
out the  several  periods,  although  in  special  instances  during  the 
later  Georgian,  the  barn  and  the  stable  were  treated  to  a  little 
style. 

Many  barns  were  boarded  vertically,  without  other  cover- 
ing, although  we  note  that  sectionally,  shingles  were  used  in 
addition.  This  open  construction  served  to  ventilate  the  hay. 
The  Pennsylvania  stone  barn  had  vertical  slots  at  intervals  to 
eff'ect  the  same  purpose.  In  the  Connecticut  Valley  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  early  overhang  was  preserved  oftentimes  in  the  gables 
but  there  was  no  break  between  the  two  stories  in  the  frame, 
although  we  frequently  see  the  second-story  boards  overlapping 
those  below,  thus  preserving  the  tradition  through  a  detail  of 
construction. 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  fact  that  the  style  of  the 
barn  was  behind  that  of  the  house.  This  was  because  the  former 
was  merely  a  constructional  problem,  unembellished.  Except 
in  the  case  of  the  overhang,  the  Georgian  house  was  practically 
the  pre-Georgian  structure  dressed  up.     The  early  open  cornice. 


^M^M^M^M^M^J^MEMEM^M^M^M^M^M^S^M^M^M&M 


An   old    [.oiig   Island   barn  which  follows   the    Saxon   tradition   in   having  the   end   door 
The  design  as  it  stands  is  good   and  nl-Mi   effective   with   the   long   shingles 


A    Connecticut    barn    which    follows    the    tradition    of    the    Pre-Georgian    type        It    is 
boarded  vertically  and  the  aisle  is  from  side  to  side  after  the  English   fashion 


fSJEliSMSJ^jQUMaraJSMSMSMSMmMMeMaiSMSISM 


The   Baldwin  stables  at  North  Woburn,   Mass.     A   good  model   for  a  large  building  of 
the  kind,  which  might  be  built  with  two  aisles  instead  of  one,  giving  five  sections 


Corn-crib  at  the   Baldwin   Estate,  which  holds  its  style  despite  its  simplicity, 
excellent    barn-yard    gates    beyond 


Note  the 


OUTBUILDINGS  115 

boxed  in  became  a  Georgian  cornice;  the  open  stair  rails  grew 
turned  and  elaborate  balusters  and  became  another  style. 

While  we  would  advise  keeping  the  character  of  the  struc- 
ture as  originally  intended,  we  would  modify  it  to  a  certain 
extent.  There  should  be  some  note  which  should  tie  it  to  the 
house  (unless  it  is  already  tied  in  fact,  when  the  problem  be- 
comes one  of  dressing) ,  some  detail  that  will  fix  the  thought  of 
comradeship,  without  marring  the  original.  If  one  is  to  retain 
the  boarded  walls,  the  crude  types  of  segmental,  elliptical  or 
circular  heads  for  the  great  doors  will  help  us,  or  perhaps  if  the 
building  be  shingled,  the  simplest  form  of  a  box  cornice  har- 
monious with  the  house  will  do.  In  the  case  of  the  overhanging 
gable,  we  would  suggest  that  the  cornice  merely  return  slightly 
rather  than  disturb  the  simplicity  of  the  overhang  by  traversing 
the  gable.  In  all  this  we  are  simply  doing  what  the  owner 
would  probably  have  done,  had  he  cared  to  go  to  the  expense. 

If  we  are  to  cover  the  outside  boarding  we  naturally  de- 
stroy our  ventilation  by  closing  up  the  cracks.  For  this  reason 
other  means  must  be  employed  to  preserve  it.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary that  we  put  a  ventilator  in  the  roof  (unless  our  roof  be 
hipped),  although  this  in  an  excellent  place  for  it.  We  cause 
less  disturbance  by  inserting  two  narrow  window  openings  in 
the  opposite  peaks  and  fortifying  the  same  with  louvers.  Under 
the  eaves  and  over  window  openings  or  where  they  would 
naturally  occur,  the  flat  squat  vent  may  be  placed  to  good 
purpose. 

While  shingles  may  serve  to  cover  the  bam  walls,  we  are 
much  averse  to  using  clapboards,  unless  in  extreme  cases  where 
one  be  in  the  village  and  the  structure  be  near  the  street.  We 
do  not  wish  the  barn  to  be  too  conscious ;  clapboards  have  the 
self-consciousness  of  dress.  Perhaps  the  wide  siding  could  be 
used,  it  being  a  crude  form  of  our  modern  clapboard,  but  best 
of  all  is  the  manner  of  the  original  intention;  the  vertical  board- 
ing, which  we  can,  if  desired,  overlay  in  like  manner  and  thus 
keep  our  effect.  Of  course  where  shingle  was  original,  it  should 
be  retained.  The  great  danger  in  overhauling  our  barn  lies  in 
our  chance  of  spoiling  it ;  it  may  be  of  so  simple  a  character  that 
one  may  fail  to  recognize  its  perfection  until  too  late.  Per- 
sonally we  feel  that  the  open  vertical  boarding  has  so  much  in 


116 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


its  favor  that  it  might  well  be  retained  as  such,  without  cover- 
ing. The  portion  of  the  interior  allotted  to  the  stock  can  be 
ceiled  up  on  the  inside  if  desired. 

While  the  exterior  may  be  a  barn  exterior,  there  is  nothing 
to  hinder  the  interior  being  a  stable.  We  have  already  stated 
that  the  common  arrangement  consisted  of  the  main,  through 
passage  with  the  flanking  outshots.  Above  the  latter,  leaving 
a  head  room  between  six  and  seven  feet,  were  second  floors  or 
platforms,  while  another  platform  over  the  central  portion  of 
the  structure  was  placed  about  four  or  five  feet  higher.     This 


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1 

Fig.  17 — Plan  and  section  suggestive  of  the  stabbleizing 

of  the  old  barn.      B  S,  Box  stall;  C,  Carriage;  H,  Hay; 

HR,     Harness    room;     S,     Stall;     St,     Straw    bay;    T, 

Threshing-floor;  P  &  H,  Poultry  &  hogs 


Fig.  18 — Plan  and  sec- 
tion suggestive  of  the 
utility  of  the  spring  as  a 
cooler.  C,  Cold  storage; 
S,  Spring-house  cooler ; 
W,  Water;  V,  Vent;  O, 
Overflow;  G,  Grade 


left,  as  will  be  seen,  a  chance  to  stow  away  the  hay  by  passing 
it  first  to  the  outshot  platforms  or  mows  and  thence  to  the  center 
mow.  Where  we  find  the  stock  and  horses  confined  to  one  side 
of  the  building,  the  opposite  outshot  is  very  apt  to  have  no  floor 
and  thus  ofl'ers  several  feet  in  depth  for  the  further  storage  of 
hay  or  straw.  Part  of  this  outshot  may  be  utilized  for  the  best 
carriage,  the  every-day  rigs  and  carts  being  relegated  to  an 
outside  shed.  Underneath  the  barn,  a  portion  is  utilized  as  a 
shelter  for  the  stock  when  turned  into  the  attached  yard  and 
another  portion  for  the  hogs.  This  old-time  arrangement  is 
still  a  good  one ;  any  farmer  will  tell  j'^ou  why.     Sometimes,  too, 


OUTBUILDINGS  117 

the  poultry  are  taken  care  of  under  this  roof.  All  this  is  the 
general  scheme  of  the  old  barn,  which  is  subject  to  variations 
and  sometimes  radical  changes. 

While  we  may  desire  still  to  utilize  the  barn  for  the  pur- 
poses for  which  it  was  intended  and  of  which  use  there  is  little 
to  be  said,  we  often  require  its  use  as  a  stable.  Its  adaptation 
is  comparatively  easy :  one  outshot  may  be  utilized  for  the  horses, 
the  harness  room  and  the  grain  room,  while  the  opposite  outshot 
may  serve  to  store  carriages.  The  space  allotted  to  the  horses 
would  naturally  be  closed  off  from  the  rest  of  the  floor,  but  the 
carriage  portion  is  best  left  open  into  the  main  passageway. 
Such  arrangements  will  probably  make  it  necessary  to  separate 
the  mows  from  the  rest  of  the  building.  To  effect  this  change, 
we  may  floor  across  our  passage  on  top  of  our  side  mows  and 
remove  the  old  floor  above  it,  provided  we  gain  space  enough 
to  make  the  change  worth  while.  Or  perhaps  we  may  treat  the 
portion  in  the  center  thus,  leaving  that  near  the  main  entrance 
free  so  as  to  get  inside  with  a  load  of  hay  from  either  direction, 
keeping  the  lowered  new  flooring  as  an  easy  passageway  from 
one  side  mow  to  another.  Perhaps  scuttles  may  be  necessary 
in  the  floor  at  each  end  to  allow  for  the  successful  workings  of 
the  hay-carrier  or,  if  one  is  afraid  of  getting  dirt  on  the  car- 
riage, the  hay  can  be  put  in  through  an  outside  door.  There 
may  be  some  difficulty  in  getting  head-room  for  the  carriage 
under  the  frame  of  the  side  mow  and  such  may  mean  a  raising 
of  this,  or  perhaps  utilizing  the  outside  cart  shed.  Whatever 
the  treatment  be  resorted  to,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  carriage 
should  be  protected  from  the  litter  of  the  hay. 

Necessary  to  the  general  utility  of  the  barn  is  the  barnyard. 
This  is  the  natural  intermediary  gathering  place  of  the  stock, 
betwixt  the  tie-up  and  the  pasture.  With  the  stableized  barn, 
it  may  be  used  as  a  paddock.  When  the  height  of  the  barn 
underpinning  (usually  of  stone)  is  sufficient,  the  enclosing  bar- 
rier is  best  made  of  like  material.  Laid  in  one-third-cement 
mortar  and  reasonably  smooth  on  the  inner  side,  it  will,  if 
properly  constructed,  with  a  suitable  foundation,  last  indefinitely. 
As  far  as  utility  is  concerned,  a  good  wire  fence  would  answer 
every  purpose,  but  unfortunately  for  this  effective  agent,  it  lacks 
bulk  and  the  look  of  substance  one  naturally  expects  in  the  fence 


118  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

attached  to  a  building.  Therefore,  outside  the  wall,  the  rail 
fence  of  sawed  stock  seems  to  be  the  proper  thing  under  the 
circumstances  and  corresponds  with  much  of  the  old-time  gate 
consti-uction.  The  picket  fence  is  hardly  the  thing,  even  if 
capped;  the  barn-yard  is  too  near  the  purpose  of  the  pasture 
to  borrow  the  motive  of  the  enclosed  front  flower  garden. 
Sometimes,  when  the  barn  occurs  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
road  from  the  house,  we  frequently  find  two  barn-yards.  One 
of  these  forms  the  entrance  way  to  the  structure  and  the  other 
the  stock  yard.  In  all  this  is  an  excellent  chance  for  simple 
gates  and  fences;  one  may  make  or  mar  the  problem  with  this 
treatment  alone. 

There  is  little  to  be  said  of  the  stable  that  has  not  already 
been  said  of  the  barn.  As  a  general  thing  it  is  modern  enough 
to  be  serviceable  without  loss  of  convenience.  Have  a  care  to 
your  exterior;  your  interior  may  be  as  up-to-date  as  you  choose. 
One  thing  must  be  remembered:  that  the  barn  or  the  stable 
should  not  overpower  the  house,  neither  by  its  size,  by  its  near 
proximity  to  the  latter  nor  by  its  color. 

If  one's  holdings  are  large  or  important  enough,  it  may  be 
desirable  to  keep  a  man  on  the  place  all  the  time,  and  as  this 
often  means  his  family,  a  structure  taking  the  isolated  form  or 
attached  to  or  incorporated  in  the  barn  or  stable  may  be  desir- 
able. With  the  separate  building,  there  is  a  chance  to  do  much 
with  the  early  methods;  a  large  kitchen  (also  used  as  a  dining- 
room)  and  a  living-room,  with  one  or  two  rooms  above.  One 
could  almost  duplicate  some  of  those  simple  early  structures. 
Whether  attached  or  detached,  it  should  be  simple  and  at  best 
be  but  one  grade  higher  than  the  barn.  There  is  temptation, 
where  the  main  house  is  set  back  from  the  street  and  other  con- 
ditions admit  of  it,  to  put  the  cottage  on  the  street,  making  a 
gate  lodge  of  it  and  giving  it  the  whole  flavor  of  the  early  setting ; 
its  natural  simplicity  helps. 

It  is  perhaps  better  that  small  outhouses  like  the  swine- 
house,  hen-house,  woodshed,  etc.,  with  possible  exception  of  the 
ice  house,  corn-crib  and  vegetable  cellar,  be  included  collectively 
under  one  roof  or  annex  themselves  as  is  fitting  to  either  of  the 
large  structures — the  barn  or  the  house.  This  saves  a  scatter- 
ing of  buildings.     Such  should  not  be  tacked  onto  the  barn  or 


The  outhouse,  if  incorporated  under  the  roof  of  the  woodshed  and  screened   by 
or   trees,   loses   its  bald   identity   in   the   general   ensemble 


The  old  Taylor  stable  at  Roxbury,  Mass.     The  wings  to  the  right  are  apparently  of 
a   later    date.     The   stable   proper   is   simple   and   dignified 


SMSTcirarSMMSMSfSISMMMMSrSMM^MSJSMSM^MMSf^MSja 


p] 


Minot   House,   Concord,   Mass.     An   early   Georgian   type  of  the  "B"   plan,   with   an 
excellent  woodshed 


w^^^^^!^r^m'^^-^*\^^^'m'^i^ii^m 


Servants'  or  caretaker's  quarters  attached  to  the  barn.     A  modern  building  on  old 
lines,  using  the  windows  and  doors  of  a  former  structure 


m^lM^M^M^M^M^MM^Mi^M^^M^S^M&M^M^J^M^M^SB^J^ 


OUTBUILDINGS 


119 


stable,  although  it  may  be  embodied  within  its  walls.  The  wood- 
house,  which  is  often  attached  to  the  house,  may  be  separate 
from  it  and  combined  with  the  tool-house,  the  earth  closet  and 
perhaps  an  outside  laundry.  Even  if  the  house  is  provided  with 
a  plumbing  system,  the  earth  closet  is  still  important.  One  fact 
should  never  be  lost  sight  of  in  locating  the  pig-pen  and  like 
delicate  units : — their  relation  to  prevailing  winds  and  the  house. 

In  suggesting  the  earth  closet  we  pass  the  old-time  privy 
by  as  a  dangerous  thing.  The  former  is  provided  with  a  tight 
box  arranged  for  easy  transportation  either  by  hand  or  horse 
and  its  frequent  distribution  to  various  parts  of  the  orchard, 
vineyard  or  garden.  A  receptacle  for  dry  earth  is  arranged  for, 
inside  the  structure,  and  this  if  used  plentifully  will  act  as  an 
absorbing  agent  for  both  moisture  and  odor,  being  a  decided  im- 
provement over  the  ever  leaching  and  consequently  dangerous 
privy.  It  is  especially  important  that  the  usual  conspicuous 
isolation  of  the  above  mentioned  structure  be  absorbed  under 
another  and  more  dominant  roof. 

The  woodshed  is  generally  attached  to  the  house,  either 
directly  or  by  a  covered  passage.     So  arranged  it  best  serves 


Fig.   19 — Showing  two   arrangements   of  the   attached   woodshed  with  the  incorpor- 
ated tool-house  and  earth  closet.     The  latter  has   all  the  advantage  of  the  isolated 

closet,  by  introducing  cross  ventilation  in  the  passage  between  it  and  the  house 
H — House  E — Earth  closet  V — Louvered  vents 

WS— Woodshed  T— Tool  shed  I^— Lattice 


its  purpose  when  rain,  sleet  and  snow  are  frolicking  with  Boreas 
all  up  and  down  the  countryside.  We  do  not  know  whether 
the  reader  be  aware  of  the  fact,  but  in  such  case  it  will  bear  re- 
peating:— wood,  to  keep  dry  and  in  good  condition,  requires 
considerable  ventilation.  For  this  reason  one  side  is  frequently 
open  to  the  weather  or,  in  the  extreme,  the  opening  is  latticed  or 
blinded.  Under  such  conditions  the  flooring  or  platform  does 
not  necessarily  extend  to  the  front  line  of  the  open  side,  but 


120  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

drops  back  to  aiFord  a  passage  on  the  ground  between  the  two. 
This  serves  to  remove  the  wood  from  the  weather  and  to  keep  it 
from  the  ground.  Of  course  one  recognizes,  without  being  told, 
the  possibiUties  for  effect  with  an  exterior  of  this  sort. 

The  spring  house  is  an  institution  of  which  many  of  us  hold 
pleasant  memories.  When  one  is  fortunate  enough  to  have  a 
good  spring,  within  reasonable  distance,  the  opportunity  should 
not  be  neglected.  Not  only  is  the  spring  a  possible  source  of 
water  supply,  but  it  serves  as  a  cooler  as  well.  Naturally  the 
spring  house  is  just  below  the  spring  so  that  the  water  may  be 
made  to  flow  through  it.  The  common  floor  is  an  island  around 
which  the  cool  water  is  made  to  flow,  discharging  at  a  point  ap- 
proximately opposite  its  entrance.  The  pails  or  cans  are  placed 
in  this  miniature  stream,  which,  never  freezing,  is  as  eff*ective 
in  winter  as  in  summer.  Naturally  the  walls  are  best  if  of 
masonry  and  hollow,  and  in  these  days  of  cement  concrete  the 
problem  of  the  interior  may  be  made  both  simple  and  clean. 
The  wall  openings  should  be  blinded  and  two  at  least  be  low  in 
themselves  or  extend  downward  to  near  the  level  of  the  plat- 
form. The  roof  must  be  ventilated  as  well.  Commonly  the 
entrance  was  protected  by  a  porch,  but  if  the  structure  be  used 
for  other  purposes  and  in  so  doing  gives  us  a  vestibule  between 
the  outside  and  spring  house  proper,  or  if  the  door  occurs  on  the 
north  side,  or  if  it  be  well  shaded  by  trees,  the  porch  may  be 
omitted. 

A  good  spring  with  gravity  toward  the  house  is  worth  al- 
most its  weight  in  gold.  Such  a  condition  is  at  once  a  water 
supply,  milk  cooler,  house  cooler  and  cold  storage  for  fruit  and 
vegetables.  The  same  supply  o*f  cold  water  passing  through 
several  compartments  of  one  building  may  serve  several  ends. 
If  we  have  grade  enough  so  that  our  cold  storage  may  be  located 
beneath  the  spring  house  floor  (and  this  can  readily  be  done  by 
aid  of  concrete),  we  can  construct  a  water-tight  and  hollow  wall 
so  that  a  sheet  of  moving  cold  water  will  envelop  our  cold  stor- 
age and  render  its  temperature  as  even  as  is  possible.  This  of 
course  would  require  ventilation.  Although  the  idea  is  new  to 
us,  we  see  no  reason  why  it  might  not  be  made  of  practical  value, 
being  but  the  combined  principles  of  the  ordinary  spring  house 
and  root  cellar. 


OUTBUILDINGS  121 

If  perchance  our  grade  will  admit  of  it,  the  overflow  of  the 
spring  house,  or  a  part  of  it,  may  be  carried  in  a  tight  conduit 
through  the  hollow  walls  of  a  metal  cooler  in  the  house  cellar. 
As  ice  is  a  problem  in  itself  the  above  suggestions  are  worth 
consideration. 

Speaking  of  ice  very  naturally  suggests  the  ice  house,  and 
if  there  be  no  spring,  one  has  hardly  any  other  resource.  Al- 
though the  question  of  the  ice  house  is  discussed  at  length  in 
Farmers'  Bulletin  475,  and  far  more  thoroughly  than  our  lim- 
ited space  will  allow,  yet  we  can  hardly  pass  it  by  without  a 
brief  description.  Generally  speaking  its  construction  is  as  fol- 
lows : — having  selected  a  sheltered  spot,  the  foundation  is  carried 
below  the  frost  and  the  pit  thus  excavated,  being  well  drained, 
is  filled  with  broken  stone  and  cinders.  Perhaps  there  is  a  slat 
floor  on  top  of  this,  but  it  is  not  necessary.  The  walls,  if  of 
wood,  are  double  sheathed  on  the  outside  and  also  on  the  inside, 
the  latter  having  an  air  space  between.  The  space  between 
studs  is  filled  with  shavings  or  sawdust  and  the  roof  carries  neces- 
sary vents.  In  primitive  tj'^pes  the  ceiling  is  omitted,  but  there 
is  practicability  in  an  insulated  ceiling.  Within  this  chamber, 
properly  drained  and  ventilated  and  protected  from  the  sun,  the 
ice  is  packed  in  sawdust.  A  form  of  cold  storage  is  contrived 
by  elevating  the  ice  chamber  and  utilizing  the  space  below  it. 

The  common  root  cellar  is  supposed  to  be  for  the  most  part 
covered  with  earth  and  partly  below  the  ground  level.  It 
should  be  placed  on  well  drained  soil,  either  in  the  open  or  dug 
into  a  bank  or  hill.  Its  roof  is  generally  covered  with  soil  and 
turfed,  in  fact  it  is  made  to  retain  as  far  as  possible  a  normally 
cool  temperature  without  danger  from  the  influence  of  the  out- 
side temperature.  With  this  in  view,  the  vertical  end,  against 
which  it  is  manifestly  impossible  to  pile  dirt,  should  be  treated 
much  in  the  manner  as  the  ice  house  wall  and  also  fitted  with 
double  doors.  It  goes  without  saying  that  there  should  be  a 
ventilator  in  the  roof  and  one  that  may  be  stufl*ed  with  straw 
in  extreme  weather. 

Sometimes  we  find  the  cellar  banked  up  on  all  sides  and 
accessible  only  from  the  roof;  a  good  idea,  barring  the  difficulty 
of  handling  the  contents  of  the  cellar. 

There  seems  to  be  considerable  diiFerence  of  opinion  as  to 


122  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

whether  the  floor  should  be  of  concrete  or  dirt.  The  cement 
manufacturers  give  us  deHghtful  cuts  of  up-to-date  farm 
buildings  in  concrete,  amongst  which  the  root  cellar  figures  en- 
tirely of  this  material,  even  to  the  bins.  The  less  "progressive," 
but  probably  as  competent  farmer  tells  us  that  he  can't  keep 
his  "stuff"  on  a  concrete  bottom.  The  discussion  is  rather  out- 
side the  scope  of  this  book  and  yet  one  cannot  help  remarking, 
before  dismissing  the  subject,  that  fruit  and  vegetables  were 
successfully  handled  long  before  concrete  was  heard  of  in  this 
country. 

Perhaps  the  most  vital  question  which  we  humans  have  to 
contend  with,  outside  that  of  food  supply,  is  that  of  water  sup- 
ply. The  reclaimed  house  that  cannot  call  to  its  assistance  the 
service  of  good  pure  water  in  sufficient  quantities,  is  handicapped 
in  a  most  unfortunate  manner.  The  modern  public  service, 
which  one  cannot  often  rely  on  in  the  country,  from  its  very 
nature  is  not  always  pure  beyond  question.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  small  co-operative  system,  which  is  also  expensive; 
then  too,  one  is  not  always  able  to  protect  one's  source  of  supply 
from  the  outside  interference  and  contamination. 

If,  however,  one  has  a  good  and  copious  spring,  the  prob- 
lem is  simply  one  of  guarding  against  outside  infection.  Often 
in  following  the  flow  back  into  the  ground  we  may  be  able  to 
find  firm  footing  on  solid  rock  on  which  to  rear  a  protecting  wall 
of  stone  or  concrete.  Brick  is  omitted  purposely;  it  is  too  por- 
ous for  this  problem,  unless  thoroughly  tarred  on  the  outside,  a 
treatment  which  might  be  applied  to  stone  and  concrete  as  well. 

Unfortunately  the  reliable  surface  spring  is  a  rarity,  ex- 
cept in  places  where  it  is  unavailable  or  in  the  advertisements  of 
farm  property.  Thus  we  are  back  with  the  old  well  at  last; 
not  the  well  we  knew  intimately  in  the  days  of  childish  joys,  but 
the  kind  the  doctors  prod  with  a  long  stick,  calling  all  the  time 
for  the  public  to  look  out.  Yes,  it  is  probably  true  that  the 
well  has  killed  many;  'tis  also  a  wonder  it  has  not  killed  more. 
But  whose  fault  is  it?  Surely  not  that  of  the  well.  Sometimes 
the  well  is  spring  fed;  more  often  it  simply  interrupts  a  flow. 
In  either  case  the  great  danger  lies  in  possible  infection.  The 
spring  fed  well  is  probably  safer  as  it  is  apt  to  come  from  con- 
siderable  depth    and   to   have   been   thoroughly   filtered.     The 


^(^^5iGib^€^^^^(^(Sb^^(Sb<^^<^<^<^I^x^^^^<^ 


An  open   woodshed  will.   k^""'.    -^iii.i'li-   t.^u.;,.-,   giving  a   large   area  of  openings.     Its 
attachment  to  the  house  is  bad,   however 


The  screened  woodshed  has  some   practical  advantages,  but  the  lattice  should   fall 
back  of  the  outer  wall  face  several  inches  to  give  the  best  results 


qpqpqp  qjp  gpqpqp  qpqpqpqp  ejpqg>qgi  ejpgjsejisqp  egsqgejig  qpejpejpqg 


OUTBUILDINGS  128 

other  type,  on  the  contrary,  coming  from  no  one  knows  where, 
may  pick  up  all  sorts  of  unpleasant  things  in  its  passage.  We 
reason  that  if  we  keep  our  drainage  away  from  the  well  and  on 
a  lower  level,  we  are  doing  about  all  that  we  can  be  expected  to 
do.  But  then  there  is  the  barn  and  the  outhouse;  how  do  they 
stand?  Even  then  it  is  a  question  whether  the  sub-strata  pitch 
with  the  land  or  against  it.  With  this  to  contend  against  one 
can  only  keep  watch  on  the  water  and  resort  to  occasional 
analysis. 

As  to  the  construction  of  the  well  there  are  several  different 
methods.  Of  these  the  stone  wall  is  the  most  common.  Old 
wells  were  of  very  rough  masonry  and  the  collection  of  water 
growth  they  acquired  suggests  that  such  walls  might  be  much 
smoother  to  good  advantage;  the  well  requires  cleaning  occa- 
sionally. Brick  of  course  makes  a  cleaner  job,  but  good  hard 
material  should  be  selected.  Our  own  preference  is  the  glazed 
tile. 

The  manner  of  construction  depends  on  the  nature  of  the 
supply.  Have  we  the  spring  feed,  the  walls  may  be  tight  (if 
possible)  to  the  exclusion  of  other  possible  sources  of  supply. 
This  may  mean  an  overflow  above  the  ground  level — that,  pro- 
vided we  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  check  the  loss  of  our 
water,  through  its  natural  subterranean  channels.  If  on  the 
contrary  we  are  dependent  on  the  ordinary  filtered  flow,  we  must 
leave  enough  dry  wall  at  the  bottom  to  allow  of  its  collection, 
but  the  wall  above  should  be  tight,  thus  excluding  such  surface 
water  as  might  otherwise  pass  through  it. 

Besides  the  purely  practical  side  of  the  interior  we  have  the 
exterior  which  must  be  both  practical  and  artistic.  To  begin 
at  the  beginning,  we  have  the  well  sweep.  We  will  not  go  into 
its  history,  because  it  is  not  vital.  It  suffices  to  say  that  it 
may  be  used  with  any  of  our  less  palatial  houses  up  to  1800. 
As  to  the  well  sweep  we  can  testify  to  its  practicability,  having 
found  it  comparatively  easy  to  push  the  bucket  down;  it  would 
come  up  laden,  of  its  own  accord.  Perhaps  the  one  thing  in  all 
this  with  which  fault  may  be  found,  is  the  curbing  and  general 
open  condition  of  the  well.  Stray  toads,  kittens,  rats  and  mice, 
to  say  nothing  of  countless  insects,  are  hardly  pleasant  additions 
to  M^ell  water.     That  these  arrive  by  way  of  the  bottom,  the 


124  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

cracks,  the  spout  and  the  open  top,  one  hardly  needs  be  told  and 
that  it  is  a  simple  matter  to  eliminate  these  objections,  is  equally 
clear.  A  tight  well  curb,  well  secured  and  fitted  to  its  founda- 
tion, a  cover  for  the  top  having  a  slight  pitch  and  some  sort  of 
screened  contrivance  for  closing  the  spout  (provided  it  had  one) 
should  form  an  effective  combination  against  undesired  visitors. 
This,  and  of  course  the  provisions  for  ventilation  plus  a  dust 
screen,  should  not  be  neglected  if  we  are  to  do  the  thing  properly. 

The  windlass  is  probably  later  than  the  stone  balance,  which 
we  often  see  in  shallow  wells.  With  this  last  form  the  well  rope 
is  attached  to  a  wheel  or  drum  whose  axle  is  a  wooden  shaft. 
To  the  latter  the  stone  weight  is  hung  as  a  balance,  being  suf- 
ficiently heavy  to  counteract  the  leverage  of  the  drum.  Thus 
it  is  evident  that,  if  the  circumference  of  the  shaft  be  one-third 
that  of  the  drum,  the  bucket  will  drop  fifteen  feet  while  the  stone 
is  ascending  five. 

Of  the  crank  windlass  there  is  little  to  be  said,  except  that 
the  external  details  of  curb,  hood  and  crank  should  have  perhaps 
a  primitive  touch.  This  and  the  same  regard  for  the  curbing  and 
screening  in,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  will  do  about  all  that 
can  be  done. 

Does  the  reader  by  any  chance  remember  the  old  wooden 
pump;  made  from  a  solid  log,  with  a  wooden  handle  and  a 
wooden  spout,  which  together  with  a  long  wooden  trough 
for  the  horses  to  drink  out  of,  completed  a  very  wooden 
whole?  And  perhaps  there  was  a  ball  on  top  and  a  bit  of 
crude  wrought  iron  work  to  support  the  spout  and  keep  the 
suspended  bucket  from  slipping  off.  Do  you  by  chance  remem- 
ber this?  If  so,  it  is  well,  for  this  is  our  pump — the  only  pump 
we  are  allowed  to  use,  unless  perhaps  we  may  hide  it  where  its 
cast  iron  ugliness  will  not  be  seen.  But  if  it  be  possible  give  us 
the  wooden  exterior  whatever  you  may  do  with  its  inner  working 
parts.  Remember  there  are  lots  of  things  more  unsightly  than 
an  old  wooden  pump.  And  if  it  is  not  rich  enough  for  your 
house,  take  a  good  look  at  a  fence  post  and  see  if  it  does  not  sug- 
gest something  to  you — but  do  not  over-elaborate. 

When  one  mentions  the  power  pump  we  naturally  think  of 
the  driven  well  which  often  supplies  us  with  water — ^water  which 
tastes  of  yards  and  yards  of  iron  pipe.     Now  the  driven  well  is 


OUTBUILDINGS  125 

too  important  in  its  function  to  be  slighted  and  too  modern  to 
be  discussed  here.  It  will  be  sufficient  if  we  admit  its  usefulness 
for  general  purposes,  while  denying  its  superiority  as  a  producer 
of  drinking  water. 

The  power  pump  however,  is  not  limited  to  the  deep  well. 
With  the  aid  of  hot  air  or  gasoline  it  may  be  used  with  the  ordi- 
nary well,  provided  it  furnishes  a  copious  supply.  Small  prob- 
lems may  frequently  be  solved  in  this  way.  That  the  house 
which  encloses  the  outfit  should  be  in  harmonious  style  goes  with- 
out saying. 

Not  so  very  many  years  ago,  people  lowered  things  down 
into  the  well  in  pails  to  keep  them  cool,  but  the  doctor  with  the 
very  long  stick,  pointed  a  correspondingly  long  finger  at  them 
and  some  drew  the  pails  up  again.  Now  perhaps  he  was  right 
after  all;  just  the  same,  the  well  was  a  pretty  good  cooler.  Per- 
haps out  of  respect  to  the  busy  and  learned  M.D.  we  might  build 
twin  wells  and  utilize  one  entirely  as  a  cooler.  The  dumb-waiter 
principle  might  be  followed,  with  the  addition  of  a  metal  tank 
on  the  bottom  of  the  waiter  which  should  serve  to  float  it  and 
incidentally  to  hold  the  milk  cans. 

We  would  not  advise  placing  a  new  well  close  to  the  house 
wall,  where  we  sometimes  find  them,  but  if  such  exists  and  seems 
practical,  the  cooler  scheme  might  be  used  to  advantage.  Usu- 
ally this  well  was  back  of  the  kitchen,  next  the  sink  and  was  cov- 
ered with  a  shed.  The  bucket  was  on  a  drum,  stone  balanced, 
and  the  door  in  the  kitchen  wall  above  made  it  accessible  from 
inside  as  well  as  the  outside. 

In  most  instances  we  are  confronted  with  the  problem  of 
water  storage,  whether  it  be  the  common  one  of  rain  water  or  the 
less  common  one  of  the  general  gravity  supply. 

The  outside  cistern  should  be  below  the  ground  if  possible 
and,  where  its  exposure  is  necessary,  it  should  be  screened  with 
some  plausible  Colonial  motive,  whether  by  house,  evergreen  or 
vine-decked  wire.  The  cistern  bottom  whether  of  concrete  or 
brick  should  pitch  toward  the  outlet  so  that  its  contents  may  be 
drawn  off  and  the  chamber  cleaned.  A  slight  hollow  or  basin 
will  be  found  convenient  at  the  low  point.  Naturally  it  should 
be  provided  with  an  overflow  and  a  modern  man-hole  device  in 
the  top. 


126  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

The  round  or  jug  type  is  circular  with  a  domed  top,  the 
man-hole  being  in  the  center.  The  walls  are  commonly  of  brick 
plastered  on  the  inside  with  cement,  waterproofed.  This  water- 
proofing should  also  be  used  with  the  concrete  cistern.  This 
type,  ordinarily,  has  a  flat  re-enforced  concrete  slab  as  a  covering 
and  the  man-hole,  as  in  the  jug  type,  has  a  necking  so  that  the 
earth  may  cover  the  main  structure  by  at  least  a  foot.  Outside 
of  all  this  the  cistern  requires  a  vent  and  such  may  easily  be  ef- 
fected by  incorporating  a  tee  in  the  man-hole  cover,  with 
screened  quarter  bends  dropped  from  the  two  openings. 

The  attic  tank,  which  sometimes  stores  the  rain  water  or  a 
part  of  it,  is  more  frequently  filled  by  means  of  the  force  pump. 
It  gives  us  gravity  service  and  its  filling  is  a  job  in  itself.  What- 
ever its  construction,  it  should  have  a  metal  tray  under  it  in  case 
of  leaks,  a  sufficient  overflow  and  ample  support  in  the  framing 
of  the  house. 

Having  modern  plumbing  to  aid  us  we  are  tempted  to  sug- 
gest a  form  of  home-made  ice-chest  which,  with  the  usual  cool 
cellar,  may  be  found  very  convenient  and  effective.  The  food 
receptacle  is  made  in  the  form  of  a  dumb-waiter  screened  with 
fine  mesh  wire  on  all  four  sides.  This  is  dropped  from  the 
pantry  into  the  cold  box  provided  for  it  in  the  cellar,  the  ice 
being  beside  it  and  as  near  the  floor  as  possible  but  so  that  the 
ice  can  be  slid  into  it  from  the  cellar  window.  The  dumb-waiter 
slides  by  the  ice  and  an  extension  is  made  to  the  bottom  of  the 
former,  so  that  the  cold  box  into  which  it  drops  is  kept  continu- 
ally closed. 

The  disposal  of  sewage  is  often  a  delicate  problem,  but 
with  strictly  country  conditions,  one  has  more  leeway  than  in  the 
village  or  town.  However,  we  cast  the  ever  suspicious  eye  on 
the  local  water  supply.  The  only  thing  to  do  is  to  carry  our  soil 
pipes,  laid  tightly,  to  a  point  below  and  distant  from  the  water 
supply.  Here  one  naturally  builds  a  cesspool,  but  this  is  so  un- 
sanitary a  contrivance  that  we  suggest  that  one  consult  some  of 
the  numerous  books  devoted  to  this  especial  subject  before 
plunging  into  an  antiquated  system  that  can  be  improved  on  in 
many  ways.  A  detailed  discussion  of  the  subject  is  somewhat 
outside  the  purpose  of  this  book,  but  we  have  in  mind  one  system 
which  is  said  to  work  perfectly  by  such  as  have  used  it  and  which, 


OUTBUILDINGS  127 

being  very  simple,  should  make  any  other  system  practically  un- 
necessary. 

The  septic  tank  is  built  of  concrete;  its  inlet  is  through  the 
side  wall  at  the  top  and  has  a  quarter-bend,  bell-shaped,  termi- 
nal; the  outlet  is  the  same.  When  full,  the  surface  is  but  four 
or  five  inches  from  the  solid  concrete  top  and  the  tank,  being  thus 
sealed  (as  the  bell-shaped  inlet  and  outlet  are  submerged)  allows 
of  the  accumulation  of  gases  in  the  space  between  the  fluid  and 
the  top.  These  gases  act  on  the  solids  and  destroy  them.  It  is 
estimated  that  a  lapse  of  some  years  must  take  place  before  the 
tank  would  have  to  be  broken  open  and  cleaned. 

The  inlet  soil  pipe  is  laid  with  close  joints;  the  outlet  for  the 
distance  of  a  few  feet,  when  it  opens  into  a  horse-shoe  tile,  which, 
being  laid  with  a  slight  pitch,  may  be  anywhere  from  twenty  to 
fifty!  f ^^t  in  length.  The  size  of  the  tank,  if  we  remember  rightly, 
is  three  by  three  by  six  feet  deep ;  this  for  eight  persons. 


Chapter  Nine 

The  garden 


WITH  the  firm  belief  that  all  outdoors  is  a  garden,  we 
have  included  the  general  details  of  artistic  practica- 
bility as  well  as  floral  treatment  under  this  simple 
head.  And  in  all  this  we  do  not  intend  to  deluge  the 
patient  reader  with  the  big  words  of  floriculture  and  horticulture 
and  expect  him  to  encore.  All  this  has  been  done  and  done  again 
in  a  far  more  convincing  manner  than  our  limited  space  will  per- 
mit. 

In  our  first  chapter  we  mentioned  the  importance  of  pre- 
liminary plotting  of  our  further  arrangements.  This  one  may 
study  and  restudy  until  he  arrives  at  the  solution  of  the  problem ; 
most  any  one  can  draw  well  enough  to  do  this. 

Now  in  all  probability  you  have  a  barn  and  a  woodshed  out- 
side the  house  and  will  decide  on  a  hen-house  and  a  new  cover  for 
the  well  and  let  it  go  at  that.  Don't!  Please  don't!  Plot  out 
the  location  and  approaches  of  all  the  buildings  we  have  men- 
tioned and  some  perhaps  besides.  It  is  not  difficult,  nor  does  it 
take  much  time.     Later,  when  you  have  decided  to  introduce 

128 


THE  GARDEN 


129 


some  of  these  features  and  find  that  they  do  not  fit,  you  will  re- 
gret it;  we  are  sure  of  this. 

Our  great  governing  line  is  the  axis  of  design;  which  so  far, 
we  have  spoken  of  only  in  connection  with  the  house.  The  main 
doorways  offer  one  set,  the  principal  windows  or  groups  of 
windows  another;  perhaps  there  are  more.     All  these  with  the 


Fig.  20 — Showing  an  example  of  the  "B"  plan  in  which  the 
most  of  the  view  to  the  north  is  bad.     Also  illustrating  the 

in  the  method  of  treatment 
G — Grape  trellis 
H— Hall 
I — Ice  house 
BR — Bedroom 
V— Vista 
K— Kitchen 
LR — Living-room 
Lry — Laundry  yard 
P— Pantry 
R — Pie  plant 


A — Arch 
AR — Arbor 

B— Bird   bath 

C — Cedars 
CM — Carriage   mount 
AD — Axis  of  design 
CR — Currants 
DR — Dining-room 
EC— Earth   closet 
FT— Flower  trellis 


barn  is  to  the  south  and 
use  of  the  axis  of  design 

KG^ — Kitchen  garden 

S— Shrub 

St — Strawberries 

T— Tree 
SB— Barn 
TS— Tool-house 

W— Well 
Wd— Woodshed 
WA — Wistaria  arch 


extreme  outlines  of  the  house,  should  be  produced  independently 
on  the  side  of  the  house  from  which  they  spring.  Naturally  the 
window  or  group  of  windows  is  more  determinate  of  features, 
while  the  door  suggests  the  path.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the 
axis  terminate  in  some  more  or  less  emphatic  detail ;  often  it  may 
pass  between  two  units  as  in  the  path  or  vista,  but  in  such  case 
the  flanking  accessories  become  balanced  on  the  axis  as  a  center 
and  hence  count  as  one  mass.  The  axis  may  or  may  not  tally 
with  our  interior  axis,  but  if  it  does,  so  much  the  better.     If  we 


130 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


are  making  alterations  of  the  house  and  it  comes  our  way  the 
lines  should  be  made  coincident. 

Aside  from  the  axis,  there  are  the  lines  of  vision.  These, 
drawn  from  your  view  points  to  external  objectives,  determine 
the  location  of  units  in  the  interval  between.     Sometimes  one 


Fig,  21.— Barnard  Garden  (restored),  Deerfield,  Mass.     (W.  H.  C.) 


1 — Sour  berry 
2 — Bridal  wreath 
3 — ^^Veigelas 
4- — Day  lily 
5 — Syringa 
6 — Japonica 


7 — Smoke   bush 

8— Lilac 

9 — Roses 

10 — Climbing  rose  on  trellis 
a — Annuals 
p — Perennials 


A — Apple 

E— Elm 

F— Fir 

B — Barberry  hedge 

L — Lily-of-the-valley 

P — Piazza 


wishes  to  hide  certain  objectives  and  in  so  doing  makes  a  feature 
of  the  means  employed  or  perhaps  it  is  a  clear  vista  that  is  re- 
quired. All  these  lines  drawn  to  scale  (over  cross-section 
paper)  should  give  you  a  pretty  clear  idea  of  our  arrangement. 


THE  GARDEN  131 


Perhaps  the  first  thing  one  considers  is  the  possibility  of 
the  vista.  Oftentimes  old  growth  suggests  this  or  gives  us  a 
foundation  to  work  on.  At  the  present  time  it  is  possible  to 
transplant  trees  of  considerable  size  and  in  the  country  the  work 
may  be  done  cheaper,  if  one  understands  it,  than  it  can  be  done 
by  the  expert.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  the  latter  has  all 
the  necessary  paraphernalia  to  work  with  and  the  process  is  per- 
haps surer.  Your  vista  may  be  one  in  which  considerable 
breadth  is  desirable  or,  for  quite  the  contrary,  an  avenue  may 
answer.  Nor  does  the  line  of  the  vista  require  flanking  through- 
out its  length;  two  trees  or  shrubs  in  the  foreground  establish 
and  frame  it  and  the  occasional  glimpse  of  others  beyond  in  not 
too  regular  order  adds  color  and  distance. 

The  vista  line  may  have  as  its  terminal  or  objective  point 
any  natural  or  artificial  object  on  the  place  which  is  attractive 
enough  to  hold  notice,  or  it  may  be  something  at  a  considerable 
distance.  In  the  country  the  little  white  church  is  frequently 
an  object  of  restful  interest  and  its  climbing  spire  may  be  seen  a 
long  way  off.  If  seen  through  a  vista  that  leads  up  to  it 
naturally,  with  the  glory  of  the  late  afternoon  sun  of  summer 
full  upon  it,  one  need  desire  nothing  more. 

Next  to  the  vista  is  the  panorama  or  sweep  and  this  may  fre- 
quently be  open  and  unobstructed;  it  is  far  more  varied  and 
effective  if  seen  through  a  screen  of  trees.  Generally,  one  be- 
comes tired  of  the  unobstructed  view.  Such  gains  tremendously 
if  framed  and  the  more  so  if  a  change  of  composition  is  made 
possible  by  a  shifting  view  point.  One  thing  should  be  remem- 
bered always ;  that  in  effect,  an  extended  view  or  a  vista  depends 
largely  on  the  perspective  of  units.  A  bush  or  shrub  near  at 
hand  appears  larger  than  a  tree  in  the  distance  or  middle  dis- 
tance. It  is  the  different  planes  in  which  our  various  units  ar- 
range themselves  that  may  remove  the  result  from  the  common- 
place and  render  into  art  that  which  on  our  plan  seems  hopeless. 
A  straight  line,  as  in  a  hedge,  goes  rambling  away  over  the 
natural  contours  of  rolling  land.  Is  the  result  a  straight  line? 
Far  from  it.  There  are  only  two  spots  where  it  appears  straight 
and  one  should  be  careful  that  one's  view  point  be  not  one  of 
them.  Properly  viewed,  the  result  is  a  rambling  undulation,  a 
crowning  sweep  or  a  depressed  hanging,  as  a  festoon. 


132 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


In  these  days  when  the  hand  camera  is  so  successfully 
handled  by  the  amateur,  one  could  well  afford  to  make  pictures 
of  bits  and  general  arrangements  which  strike  him,  but  these 
naturally  should  have  the  flavor  of  your  particular  locality,  no 
matter  how  far  they  may  be  from  it  in  reality.  For  him  who 
has  not  the  camera  or  as  a  further  aid  to  him  who  has,  the  numer- 
ous  magazines   and   photographic   reproductions   of   paintings 


Mtlptri  attage,  Jfaila  er ytnl  m  WjJiif  c/y^nct::  ■ .  •".  .P  , 


f  .f.5*'>Fi**«rt' 


1 10    io    30    10     so    io    m    eo    so    loo 

Fig,  22 — Garden  at  "Boxwood,"  Lyme,  Conn. 
A — Arbor  F — Perennials  T — Apple  tree 

B — Flower  bed  (crowned)       G — Grapevine  V — Vegetables 

C — Trumpet  creeper  P — Goldfish  pond  X — Privy 

D — Dogs'  graves  S — Shrub  Z — Trumpet  creeper  on  pole 

with  the  reproductions  from  straight  photographs  will  help  one 
considerably  in  suggesting  possibilities. 

Wherever  it  be  possible  one  should  consider  the  chance  of  a 
conservative  arrangement;  frequently  it  is  possible,  by  well 
planned  alteration,  to  give  up  our  parlor  to  public  reception  and 
in  utilizing  the  old  kitchen  as  a  living-room,  turn  our  backs  on 
the   street. 

After  a  due  consideration  of  views  and  vistas  we  next  turn 
our  attention  to  the  existing  outbuildings.  Have  they  still 
utility  and  for  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  intended?     Per- 


THE  GARDEN 


133 


Mtxiun  ffornin^-^iory  on  fence 


®^C/1 


Fig.  53 — Keyes  Garden,  Putney,  Vt.     See  planting  list  on  next  page,     {W.  U.  C.) 


134  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


PLANTING  LIST  OF  THE  KEYES  GARDEN,  PUTNEY,  VT. 

1 — Rubro-Coerulea 

2 — Darwin  tulip 

3 — Sweet  alyssum 

4 — Canterbury  bell 

5 — Shell-pink  aster 

6 — Autumn  crocus 

7 — Day  lily 

8 — Heliotrope 

9 — Geranium 
10 — Pink  verbena 
11 — Pansy 
12 — Madonna  lily 
13 — Japanese  iris 

14 — German  iris  in  bed  of  forget-me- 
not 
15 — Larkspur 
16 — Lavender 
1 7 — Forget-me-not 
18 — Monkshood 
19 — Honeysuckle 
20— Old  lemon  lily 
21 — Cosmos 
22 — Foxglove 
23 — Mountain  fringe 
23 — Swamp  mallow 
24 — Prairie  lily 
25— Gladiolus 
26 — Peonv 
27— Daffodil 
28 — Myrtle 
29— Sunflower 
30 — Golden  glow 
31— Old  yellow  lily 
32— Lilv-of-the-valley 
33— Phlox 
34 — Mignonette 
35— Lily 
36 — Poppy 
37— Wood  violet 
A — Asparagus 
C — Cold  frame 
L — Lilac 

S — Syringa 
M — Maple 
H — Larch 
F— Fruit  tree 
E— Elm 
G — Grass 
W — Woodbine 
T— Tomatoes 
Veg — Vegetable 

X— Mist 
WG^ — Wild  grape 


«'^^p,; 


^^<^^Si^k(^^k^^(^^biSb<^^^^^QS5i<^M^<^<Sb<^<^ 


The   Keyes   garden    from   the   division   wall.      It   is   next   to   impossible   to    show    tht 
charm  of  the  simple  old-fashioned  garden  through  the  medium  of  a  photograph 


Entrance  to  the  Prince  house,  F"lushing,  Long  Island,   X.  V.     The  house  is  raised  on 
a  fair-sized  terrace,  and  tlie  main   path   is  flanked   with   planting 


q^qpqp  ejjp  qpqpqp  gpqpqpqp  ejpqg>qg»  ejpgpejisejp  ejpejpefla  gpejpqpqj? 


THE  GARDEN  185 


haps  they  may  serve  other  purposes,  singly  or  in  combination. 
Then  to  the  new  buildings,  immediate  or  in  the  future;  and 
with  all  this  their  relations  to  the  house,  one  another  and  their 
natural  approaches.  Do  not  plan  to  make  too  much  of  a  detour 
in  getting  from  one  place  to  another,  for  unless  you  put  up  an 
impassable  barrier,  you  yourself  will  be  one  of  the  first  to  take  the 
short  cut.  This  is  human  nature ;  watch  your  tradesman  if  you 
doubt. 

Should  your  land  slope  to  such  an  extent  that  it  becomes 
necessary  to  ascend  a  considerable  grade,  get  a  good  teamster  to 
help  you  in  the  location  of  your  drives.  As  you  may  perhaps 
have  to  call  on  some  contractor  of  a  nearby  town  or  city  to  do 
some  of  your  work,  he  or  his  foreman  should  be  able  to  help 
you  out  of  this  difficulty. 

The  nature  of  your  roadway  or  drive  determines  the  char- 
acter of  its  construction.  Under  conditions  of  the  town  our 
forefathers  used  cobbles  to  considerable  extent  with  perhaps  flag 
foot  paths  incorporated.  Even  in  old-time  courtyards  we  find 
the  cobble  and  flag.  Brick  was  also  used  to  a  certain  extent; 
the  material  depended  on  the  production  of  the  locality. 

With  the  country  however,  where  one's  drive  is  lengthy  or 
its  character  near  to  that  of  the  farm,  a  simple  treatment  with 
rough  field  cobbles,  crushed  stone  and  a  top  dressing,  oiled,  will 
be  found  serviceable  and  quite  inexpensive.  The  more  so,  that 
the  treatment  does  not  need  to  extend  for  the  full  width  of  the 
drive  if  on  a  level,  as  the  gutter  may  be  simply  of  dirt.  Cobbles 
would  be  required  if  on  an  incline. 

The  path  or  walk,  too,  depends  on  its  use  and  its  setting. 
Flag,  brick,  pebble  or  gravel  have  their  places  according  to  the 
problem.  Walks  adjacent  to  the  house  have  a  natural  leaning 
toward  flag  and  in  a  lesser  degree  brick,  even  if  the  smaller  paths 
diverging  from  them  be  of  another  material.  Generally  speak- 
ing, the  most  used  paths  should  be  of  the  most  durable  material, 
but  remember,  we  are  limited  to  the  production  of  our  locality; 
this  is  the  natural  principle  of  building.  Hence  a  marble 
slab  for  a  marble  section,  a  slate  slab  for  a  slate  section.  Flag 
walks  are  more  efl*ective  if  not  too  regular  or  if  fitted  together 
of  more  or  less  irregular  units.  When  crossing  a  grass  plot  they 
are  best  laid  with  open  joints  after  the  manner  of  the  Japanese 


136  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

■ 

stepping  stones,  which  allows  the  grass  to  show  between  and 
hence  does  not  cut  the  grass  plot  quite  so  sharply.  In  like  man- 
ner the  principal  walks  of  a  flower  garden  may  be  laid  in  pebbles 
or  gravel. 

Steps,  which  often  are  of  stone  of  the  common  type,  are 
frequently  built  with  flag  treads  and  brick  rises.  Sometimes, 
in  a  free  treatment  the  flags  alone  are  set  in  the  incline  of  a  sod 
bank.  This  is  well  enough,  except  its  lack  of  lasting  qualities. 
If  it  be  constructed  with  a  masonry  foundation,  not  necessarily 
exposed,  it  has  a  much  better  chance  of  staying  in  place. 

Speaking  of  the  steps,  recalls  the  old  pillion-mounts  one 
sometimes  (but  rarely)  sees  and  the  ordinary  horse  block  of 
later  popularity.  Another  form  which  catches  the  eye  along 
the  roadside  in  New  York  State  and  which  probably  exists  else- 
where, is  a  flight  of  simple  wooden  steps  with  rails,  a  relic  of  high- 
swung  wagon  bodies  and  through-braces.  Now  these  are  de- 
tails that  interest  us,  and  their  use,  in  one  form  or  another,  should 
fit  into  our  general  scheme.  Even  though  we  may  keep  no  horse 
ourselves,  we  may  have  visitors. 

Having  disposed  of  our  walks  and  drives,  let  us  return  to 
our  outbuildings,  which  we  left  so  unceremoniously.  Generally 
the  existing  buildings  are  fixtures,  if  we  retain  them;  their  size 
and  condition  often  prohibits  their  removal  to  other  locations. 
The  new  structure,  then,  must  play  up  to  the  old  and  it  is  for  us  to 
determine  what  is  to  be  seen  from  the  house  and  what  not. 

In  dealing  with  problems  of  the  South,  one  naturally  has 
in  mind  Mt.  Vernon  and  other  well  known  examples,  in  which 
the  arrangement  of  the  whole  scheme  of  buildings  is  balanced 
and  connected.  This  of  course  is  easier  to  handle  than  our  north- 
ern problems  which  require  special  study,  the  result  of  which  can 
not  always  be  founded  on  precedent.  It  is  however,  an  interest- 
ing problem,  such  as  lends  itself  to  unlimited  space  and  far  off 
views.  Its  key-note  being  academical,  it  requires  harmonious 
chords  to  carry  out  a  satisfying  theme;  in  its  intimate  arrange- 
ment, any  unit  off  the  main  center  line  (which  usually  passes 
through  the  long  hall  of  the  house) ,  requires  a  balancing  unit  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  line. 

The  most  objectionable  portion  of  any  structure  is,  gener- 
ally speaking,  its  bald  junction  with  the  ground.     Long  ago  our 


THE  GARDEN  137 


ancestors  grew  flowers  and  shrubs  along  the  house  wall,  probably 
because  it  was  a  convenient  place,  but  in  this  it  served  two  pur- 
poses. Now  we  are  enthusiastic  admirers  of  these  old  flower 
borders ;  they  have  wonderful  possibilities.  No  matter  how  stiff 
their  planting,  their  rambling  nature  redeems,  in  a  measure, 
man's  laxity,  whether  it  be  of  taste  or  forethought. 

Some  structures  we  may  wish  to  see  entire  or  in  part.  Most 
buildings  look  better  if  obscured  slightly  by  trees.  Thus,  even 
our  most  open  rendering  were  better  for  some  break  in  its  formal 
outlines.  Supposing  that  your  view  points  are  not  so  far  apart 
and  that  the  building  in  question  sits  at  an  angle  to  your  lines  of 
vision : — do  not  place  your  obstructive  agent  in  the  center ;  throw 
it  to  one  side  destroying  all  suggestions  of  formality. 

The  roof  line  of  a  building  is  the  better  for  a  slight  break, 
but  even  without  this,  it  is  the  least  objectionable  part  to  have 
exposed.  A  roof  ascending  out  of  the  trees  or  small  growth  is 
a  feature  which  generally  lends  itself  well  to  composition.  In 
shutting  off  a  portion  of  your  building  or  in  interrupting  its  sky 
line,  one  should  not  forget  that  a  small  tree  or  sizable  shrub— 
a  lilac,  syringa  or  smoke  bush  may,  if  placed  in  the  foreground, 
effect  as  much  as  an  elm  fifty  feet  high,  placed  near  the  object 
we  wish  to  screen.  The  screen  may  perhaps  be  as  efl'ective,  if 
but  a  tracery  of  vines  or  interlaced  branches  and  twigs.  Often 
the  far  object,  seen  dimly  through  such  lacework,  is  interesting 
in  the  extreme  and  perhaps  the  more  so  if  the  character  of  the 
structure  permits  a  play  of  light  color  through  the  interstices  of 
the  intervening  growth.  Naturally,  if  the  near  tree  or  shrub 
can  be  used  locally  as  a  feature,  so  much  the  better  for  the  art ; 
and  if  it  comes  within  the  limits  of  the  garden,  it  at  once  gives  it 
a  touch  that  must  be  reckoned  with  in  our  planning. 

These  screens  may  serve  three  purposes;  as  windbreaks, 
as  screens  to  objectionable  objects,  or  in  a  more  or  less  open  form 
as  a  frame  for  some  picture  beyond. 

For  an  eff'ective  windbreak  the  evergreen  is  necessary.  If 
we  are  fortunate  enough  to  possess  one  ready  made,  so  much  the 
better.  Perhaps  the  neighboring  hills  or  woods  answer  the  pur- 
pose; let  us  hope  so  at  least.  Very  large  trees  would  be  rather 
expensive  to  transplant  in  any  number,  for  while  one  row  may 
answer,  two  would  be  better ;  the  large  tree  means  a  considerable 


138  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

sweep  of  wind.  For  ordinary  purposes,  the  cedar  or  its  local 
equivalent  may  be  used  with  effect.  It  may  take  a  formal  or 
informal  arrangement  as  the  case  may  demand.  Generally 
speaking,  however,  it  is  best  to  evade  the  set  look  of  a  balanced 
composition  by  the  informal  arrangement  of  details;  in  an  in- 
formal plan  too  much  formality  should  not  exist. 

The  screen,  while  commonly  made  from  small  or  medium 
sized  trees,  need  not  be  so  compact  as  the  windbreak  and  it  may 
also  be  composed  of  evergreen  or  deciduous  trees  or  their  combi- 
nation; the  conditions  should  dictate.  We  have  already  men- 
tioned its  use  as  an  obscuring  agent  for  local  details ;  besides  this, 
it  may  be  required  to  cut  off  offensive  details  or  masses  at  a 
distance.  Very  often  our  neighbor's  taste  is  so  utterly  depraved 
that  one  wishes  to  forget  those  things  in  which  he  glories,  and 
one  way  to  effect  this  lies  in  not  seeing  them.  Besides  the  tree, 
shrubs  may  often  serve  to  advantage  as  foils  to  the  monotony  of 
green  foliage,  or  if  used  in  the  foreground,  may  dispense  with  the 
tree  altogether. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  tree  screen  as  an  agent  in 
breaking  the  broad  sweeping  view  and  giving  foreground  detail. 
We  here  suggest  that  the  row  or  clump  should  be  trimmed  up 
at  the  bottom  to  effect  this  purpose,  provided  of  course  they  be 
not  already  in  condition.  For  this  purpose  we  generally  con- 
sider the  deciduous  tree,  but  where  less  view  is  required  the  ever- 
green is  practical.  It  also  has  the  advantage  over  the  former  in 
offering  a  fitting  subject  for  trimming  and  piercing,  a  thing 
which  can  rarely  be  applied  to  the  deciduous  tree  without  throw- 
ing it  off  its  balance.  This  treatment  we  have  seen  applied  to 
cedars  and  if  it  be  well  done  and  has  not  the  look  of  the  artificial, 
it  offers  a  chance  for  little  glimpses  of  distance  or  near  color, 
which  last  may  be  supplied  by  a  rear  planting  of  shrubs. 
Shrubs  and  small  trees  may  play  a  large  part  in  connection  with 
the  large  deciduous  tree-screen. 

The  connecting  of  buildings  in  southern  work  suggests  that 
there  is  a  chance  with  our  northern,  which  was  however,  observed 
to  a  certain  extent.  The  fence,  the  hedge,  the  fence  with  the 
hedge  backing,  the  trellis  and  the  arbor  are  means  to  this  end. 
In  work  of  a  free  nature,  a  picket  fence  of  chestnut,  in  which 
the  pales  have  been  roughly  split  out  by  hand  and  not  too  evenly 


^M^M^SEJ^M^I^M^M^M^M^M^I^M^I^M^M^M^MM^Mr^M 


Sarkey  garden,  Essex,  Conn.,  showing  the  walk  to  the  old  shipyard.    The  box  on  the 
place  is  said  to  have  been  started  from  a  cup  of  clippings  brought  from  New  Haven 


Pentagonal    arbor    summer-house    on    the    Hollister    place,    Greenfield,    Mass.      Asher 
Benjamin,   designer  and   builder.      Displaying  considerable   understanding   of   classic 

models 


83<? 


THE  GARDEN 


139 


S    /O    /S  20  2S  JO  3S  -^O  4S  JO 


jScale. 


3free& 


Fig.  21r— Old  Timothy  Starkey  Garden,  Essex,  Conn.     {W.  H.  C.) 

A — Apple  F — Flagging  V — Arbor-vitae 

B— Box  G— Grape   arbor  W— Well 

Bh— Bulkhead  Gt — Grape   trellis  f — Flower   bed 

By — Barberry  H — Horse-chestnut  h — Honeysuckle 

C — Catalpa  L — Lilac  w — Woodbine 

c — Coldframe  P — Pine  y — Small  planting 

Ch — Cherry  S — Syringa  p — Pedestal 

D — Drinking  fountain  Sp — Spruce 


140  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

placed  as  to  space  or  uniform  height,  will  be  found  most  effective, 
and  if  the  note  of  our  buildings  be  gray,  it  can  be  left  in  the  raw 
except  for  an  immersion  in  creosote  oil,  which  sinks  into  the  pores 
and  helps  preserve  it. 

If  one  finds  an  old  box  hedge  or  even  an  isolated  shrub  or 
tree,  one  has  a  treasure.  Box  is  slow  growing  and  consequently 
is  much  sought  for  by  those  making  new  gardens.  Sometimes 
one  finds  it  ragged  and  at  first  sight  rather  hopeless,  but  if  it  is 
pruned,  not  to  a  regular  shape,  but  following  the  forms  sug- 
gested by  its  deterioration,  it  may  be  made  effective  as  well  as 
unusual.     We  have  noted  several  instances  of  such  treatment. 

Often  one  sees  the  house  that  is  set  in  the  field,  bare,  cheer- 
less and  without  proper  accessory,  and  it  looks  so  hopeless  we 
are  tempted  to  pass  it  by,  believing  it  beyond  redemption.  Per- 
haps, however,  it  is  not  so  hopeless  after  all.  If  it  were  enclosed 
with  a  fence,  and  the  enclosure  made  into  a  garden;  if  some 
medium  sized  evergreens  were  planted,  flanking  it  to  carry  out 
the  line,  and  if  one  could  afford  two  or  three  deciduous  trees, 
not  to  balance,  but  grouped  around  one  corner,  there  is  a  chance 
for  it.  Where  a  composition  is  isolated  in  an  open  plot,  and  its 
ensemble  can  be  taken  in  at  a  glance,  it  should  not  be  treated 
academically,  as  the  charm  of  such  treatment  lies  in  close  associa- 
tion and  the  feeling,  rather  than  the  instant  seeing,  that  detail 
balances  detail  and  mass  opposes  mass.  The  academic  treat- 
ment demands  perspective  and  the  view  point  on  the  axis  gives 
tiresome  results. 

Sometimes  on  the  country  road,  the  sidewalk  does  not  exist, 
or  perhaps  it  is  not  on  our  side  of  the  road.  What  then  are  the 
possibihties  with  our  grass  plot  in  the  street?  Is  there  a  chance 
for  the  crocus  in  the  spring  or  the  wild  aster  and  golden  rod  in 
the  fall?  And  will  your  public  allow  such  treatment  to  go  un- 
molested? These  are  questions  to  be  answered  and  on  their 
answer  hangs  the  fate  of  a  very  pretty  feature. 

Rarely  it  may  happen,  but  if  it  should,  lay  unflinching  hands 
on  it  and  claim  it  as  your  own — the  old  watering  place,  the  side 
drive  which  intercepts  the  crossing  brook.  This  is  one  of  those 
old-time  features  which  our  modern  soulless  road-maker  is  prone 
to  destroy.  It  may  be  bald  and  desolate;  shorn  of  all  growth 
and  "beautified"  by  the  country  road-maker — claim  it  and  at 


THE  GARDEN  141 

once  set  about  its  rejuvenation.  Many  are  the  shrubs,  flowers 
and  trees  that  grow  by  the  water  and  perhaps  in  your  rambles 
you  may  gather  suggestions  from  some  unspoiled  examples. 
Real  rustic  wood  with  the  bark  on  is  not  suggestive  of  Colonial 
methods;  our  rustication  on  the  fencing  must  be  without  bark. 
Sawed  slabs  of  chestnut,  unedged,  often  work  out  well  in  prob- 
lems of  this  kind. 

Of  course  the  roadway  will  require  a  light  (as  does  our  en- 
trance) although  normally  it  has  none.  Here  again  is  a  chance. 
If  one  really  wishes  to  take  hold  of  such  a  problem,  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  any  objections  would  be  ofl'ered  by  the  town  authori- 
ties ;  generally  they  are  only  too  glad  for  any  little  help  with  the 
town  expenses. 

Bridges  are  somewhat  of  a  rarity,  we  fancy,  in  working  out 
the  problem  of  the  old  house,  and  yet  there  are  so  many  little  and 
big  brooks  at  large,  it  is  barely  possible  one  might  extend  its  aim- 
less course  through  our  grounds  and  in  such  case  it  may  be  found 
necessary  or  advisable  to  erect  a  bridge.  This  may  be  for 
wagons  or  pedestrians,  and  there  are  so  many  pictures  of  simple 
old  English  bridges  that  may  be  consulted  and  such  definite  in- 
formation contained  in  the  public  records,  that  we  might  almost 
pass  it  by;  for  this  reason  we  will  be  brief. 

The  old-time  town  bridge  was  frequently  built  on  "cob" 
piers,  filled  with  stone.  The  heavy  stringers  were  laid  over  these 
and  a  simple  squared  hand  rail  and  posts  with  cross  braces  be- 
tween. When  a  truss  was  used,  it  was  the  king-post  type.  The 
foot  bridge,  commonly  on  two  log  stringers  with  a  single  hand 
rail,  was  sometimes  laid  on  one.  Although  the  log  used  as  a 
stringer  was  in  the  rough,  with  the  top  sized  down,  it  was  never 
intended  for  rustic  work  and  should  not  be  so  regarded. 

There  is  frequently  a  great  chance  for  diversion  in  design 
where  one  has  the  bridge  as  a  basis  to  work  on.  It  is  little  trouble 
to  plant  a  shrub  or  two — some  semi- wild  thing — or  a  vine  to 
wander  over  the  hand-rail;  or  perhaps  in  the  open  a  willow  or  a 
few  poplars.  This  for  the  simplest  types,  but  the  bridge  itself 
offers  opportunity.  Does  not  a  wistaria  arbor  suspended  over 
the  water  suggest  something  for  the  foot  bridge;  a  motive  half 
open,  half  lattice,  with  pendant  blossoms  drooping  in  the  water? 
Or  perhaps  the  clematis  may  mingle  with  the  wistaria,  or  even 


142  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

some  other  vine  be  added  to  perpetuate  the  bloom.  There  is  the 
old  covered  bridge,  which,  reduced  to  the  scale  of  the  foot  bridge, 
would  probably  not  be  too  large  for  the  place.  Where  the 
original  model  might  on  the  sides  be  boarded  in  solid,  the 
miniature  could  well  afford  lattice  and  it  is  possible  to  introduce 
a  flat  bay  and  seat  if  it  be  large  enough  for  three  spans.  Yes, 
if  you  have  a  chance  for  a  bridge,  it  is  surely  worth  while. 

Although  the  temples  of  Greece  and  Rome  have  stood  for 
centuries  and  our  own  Colonial  houses  are  tangible  facts,  the 
gardens  of  our  forefathers  are  for  the  most  part  things  of  the 
past.  Both  the  temple  and  the  house  were  outgrowths  of  neces- 
sity and  hence  of  practical  value ;  the  garden  was  the  whim  of  a 
refinement,  more  or  less  matured;  the  toy  of  a  temperament 
whose  leisure,  released  from  the  drudge  of  bare  existence,  sought 
expression  and  outlet  in  things  about  it.  When  this  controlling 
spirit  passed  away  the  garden  often  followed  it;  plowed  under 
in  a  day. 

That  the  garden  is  a  constant  care,  one  may  readily  see;  re- 
lax that  care  and  it  will  return  to  nature,  so  surely  as  its  units 
are  alive  and  things  of  nature.  For  this  reason  keep  the  garden 
simple;  simplicity  is  frequently  more  effective  than  elaboration, 
and  much  harder  to  quarrel  with. 

According  to  our  dictionary  the  garden  is  the  gathering 
place  of  fruits,  vegetables  and  flowers.  But  gardens  differ  from 
one  another  in  a  great  degree ;  it  takes  comparatively  few  flowers 
oftentimes,  to  make  a  flower  garden.  Then,  too,  our  ancestors, 
with  the  practical  end  continually  in  view,  planted  their  vege- 
tables and  flowers  together  and  very  interesting  the  result  must 
have  been.  Not  that  things  were  necessarily  mixed  up,  but  the 
flowers  were  a  sort  of  flanking  motive  for  the  more  serious  con- 
sideration of  the  vegetables.  We  are  of  those  who  still  believe 
that  fruit  and  vegetable  may  be  made  a  part  of  the  flower 
garden,  without  sacrifice  to  its  general  purpose  and  effect.  It 
was  not  so  long  ago  that  the  tomato  was  used  entirely  as  an  orna- 
ment, being  grown  on  a  trellis,  and  the  barberry  is  an  old-time 
hedge  shrub.  The  grape  arbor  frequently  frames  an  entrance 
and  the  quince,  currant  and  gooseberry  have  each  their  qualify- 
ing characteristics. 

In  one  of  our  garden  examples,  the  formal  garden  borders 


THE  GARDEN  143 


on  the  street  and  the  lot  rises  gradually  toward  the  back  by  means 
of  low  terraces.  Above  the  formal  garden  are  two  tiers  of 
practically  solid  annuals;  back  of  them  a  mass  of  sweet  peas 
silhouette  against  the  corn-planted  terrace  behind  it,  while  the 
corn  tassels  melt  into  the  foliage  of  the  apple  trees  in  the  rear. 
Between  the  corn  and  the  apple  trees,  however,  are  two  terraces 
of  vegetables,  each  with  a  border  or  low  hedge  of  flowers  in  front 
of  it.  Another  entirely  different  treatment  has  several  rectangu- 
lar plots,  box  and  flower  borders,  in  which  one  finds  grass  plot, 
kitchen  garden,  and  orchard.  Few  shrubs  are  used  and  the 
flowers  are  limited  as  suggested. 

The  main  axis  of  the  garden  is  best  if  it  can  be  continued 
on  into  the  house  as  already  described.  Lesser  lines  may  pro- 
duce other  outlooks  or  walks.  The  secondary  axis  crosses  the 
main  axis  at  right  angles,  generally  through  the  center.  This 
makes  the  center  the  important  point  and  although  it  may  be  low 
and  comparatively  simple,  it  is  still  the  governing  point  of  the 
design. 

Ordinarily,  the  garden  is  an  enclosure  and  consequently  the 
confining  boundaries  with  the  floral  adjuncts  are  higher  than  the 
rest  of  the  planting.  If  the  plot  be  small,  its  subdivisions  into 
beds  should  be  very  simple,  probably  ignoring  diagonals  and 
curves.  That  the  main  and  secondary  axis  be  coincident  with 
paths  is  not  necessary,  but  the  general  conditions  of  design  call 
for  some  observance  of  their  existence.  More  often  than  not, 
this  takes  shape  in  some  emphatic  detail  in  the  outer  bound  and 
unless  the  plot  be  close  to  a  balanced  house,  whose  axis  is  coin- 
cident with  that  of  the  garden,  the  two  side  details  may  take 
differing  forms  and  sizes.  Too  rigid  adherence  to  the  principles 
of  balance  often  result  in  a  setness  not  over  pleasing. 

Although  the  garden  is,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  near  the 
house  and  governed  by  house  conditions,  it  may  be  away  and 
even  hidden  from  it.  Such  however,  was  not  perhaps  the  best 
solution  of  the  problem,  as  it  fails  to  follow  the  old  tradition,  and 
a  garden  is  best  seen  from  the  house,  yet  as  we  have  remarked 
elsewhere,  surrounding  conditions  govern  individual  cases. 

In  the  planting  of  a  garden,  one  should  strive  for  a  sequence 
of  bloom  and  so  arranged  that  in  a  balanced  plan  this  fact  will 
not  be  lost  sight  of.     While  the  actual  agents  may  difl*er  on 


144 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


either  side  of  the  axis,  as  far  as  their  character  and  color  may- 
go,  they  should  clearly  suggest  the  intention  of  the  plan,  else  the 
plan  has  no  excuse  for  its  existence.  For  instance : — the  extreme 
corners  are  marked  by  white  and  pale  purple  lilacs;  when  these 
are  gone,  they  give  place  to  other  varieties.  These  outer  de- 
tails should  predominate 
in  size  and  color  over  the 
lesser  and  interior  units, 
which  are  enclosed  in  box 
or  sweet  alyssum  borders 
and  these  in  turn  by  plank 
or  brick  edgings.  With 
these  lesser  details,  more 
abandon  can  be  displayed, 
yet  it  is  best  that  one 
bloom  find  its  opposition 
on  the  other  side  of  the 
axis.  When  all  is  said 
and  done,  we  would  wish 
for  as  loose  a  treatment  as 
the  character  of  our  sub- 
ject will  permit,  retaining 
only,  perhaps  as  we  have  suggested,  the  true  intention  of  the  plan. 
It  is  well  not  to  forget  the  effective  possibilities  of  the  ter- 
race under  favorable  circumstances;  a  side  hill  garden  may  be 
made  delightful. 

That  color  is  a  vital  note,  is  undisputable  and  one  realizes 
this  more  when  one  comes  to  the  actual  handling  of  it.  We  have 
already  spoken  on  this  topic  in  our  chapter  on  Furniture;  we 
might  go  even  further  in  explaining  that  the  complementary 
colors  are  red  and  green,  yellow  and  purple,  blue  and  orange 
and  that  such  combinations  are  generally  harmonious.  Further 
than  this,  the  yellow  tertiary,  citron,  the  blue  tertiary,  olive 
and  red  tertiary,  russet,  require  for  their  theoretical  balance, 
purple,  orange  and  green,  respectively  and  in  small  proportions. 
However  this  means  nothing  to  one  who  has  not  a  natural  eye 
for  color  and  it  is  probable,  too,  that  woman  is  more  often  thus 
blessed  than  man. 

White,  yellow  and  red  are  naturally  our  most  vigorous  colors 


Fig. 
(TF. 


25 — Allen      Garden,      Saybrook, 
H.      C.)       All      beds      raised- 
crowned.     F — Fountain 


Conn, 
-center 


.i.'^ti^- 


7i-  --'hh*^ 


Floral  treatment  of  the  garden  ])atli.  ( )kl   Manse,  Deerfield,   Mass.     A  comparatively 
modern  treatment,   with   all  the  flavor  and  abandon  of  the  old 


cm 


o9t 


Allyn    garden,    Saybrook,    Conn.,    showing    the    box    borders    with    the    greenhouse 
beyond.     The  layout  of  this  garden  is  rather  ambitious 


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rSMeJSMSMaJSMeraJSMSJaSMSMSMSM^MSMeiMSJSMBM^ 


THE  GARDEN 


145 


and  consequently  are  used  when  one  wishes  particular  emphasis. 
Care  should  be  exercised  with  these,  because  of  their  positive 
qualities ;  it  is  very  easy  to  overdo  the  thing.  Naturally,  retiring 
and  toned  colors  may  be  used  in  larger  masses  than  positive 
colors.  A  retiring  color,  against  the  glare  of  a  white  house  re- 
quires mass  to  make  it  convincing;  the  conditions  really  require 
positive  colors. 

The  limits  of  colors  are  not,  however,  within  the  garden  en- 
closure; they  extend  beyond  it  including  the  whole  estate.  For 
this  reason,  beware  of  the  red  barn ;  it  may  clash  with  everything 
in  sight ;  it  may,  also,  be  made  to  take  its  place. 


Fig.  26— West  House,  East  Hampton,   Conn.     An  old-         Fig.   27— A   simple   motive 

time   enclosed  yard    in   which   the   old   poplars   replaced         from     a     Vermont     front 

the  old  spruce  of  the  original  layout.     Thus  the  motive         yard.     A,   Pear;  G,  Grape 

is  as  old  as  the  combined  lives  of  the  two  trees  arbor;    H,    To    house;    F, 

Fence;    M,    Marble    flags; 

P,      Tall      perennials;      S, 

Seat;  T,  Tulips 

The  pool  is  not,  as  far  as  we  know,  a  conmion  feature  of  the 
old  garden;  we  have  met  with  only  one  example  and  that  was 
intended  for  a  fish  pond,  being  set  low  enough  to  intercept  an 
underground  flow.  The  lining  of  this  example  is  of  roughly 
dressed  granite  and  we  would  suggest  such  or  a  brick  lining  in 
preference  to  cement.  If  the  pool  be  used  at  all  it  would  be  per- 
haps safer  as  a  side  issue  or  as  an  independent  detail  altogether. 
The  fountain  does  not  belong  here. 

Although  we  would  advise  one  to  gather  as  much  local  in- 
formation as  possible  regarding  old  gardens,  and  to  use  this  in 
governing  the  further  arrangements,  it  is  not  necessary  that 
one  should  confine  himself  so  closely  as  in  the  case  of  the  house. 


146  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

The  origin  of  the  two  things  were  different  and  at  the  time  the 
Colonies  were  prosperous  enough  to  afford  time  for  gardens 
they  were  in  position  for  better  intercourse  and  interchange  of 
ideas.  So  while  we  would  suggest  that  one  keep  as  near  home  as 
possible,  it  would  be  but  natural  if  he  gathered  garlands  from  a 
nearby  field. 

The  examples  pictured  in  this  chapter  have  been  carefully 
measured  and  most  of  them  restored,  and  such  restorations  are  al- 
most positive.  Such  examples  as  were  too  uncertain  to  be  con- 
clusive have  been  discarded.  From  the  descriptions  given  by 
those  who  have  known  them  and  a  careful  testing  of  such  on  the 
ground,  one  may  arrive  at  very  plausible  conclusions.  Where 
a  garden  is  simply  allowed  to  go  without  being  plowed  up,  it 
leaves  in  the  turf  the  imprint  of  the  path,  borders  and  general 
forms  and  if  one  will  take  the  pains  to  test  suggestions  with  the 
foot,  the  problem  is  often  less  difficult  than  appears  at  first  sight. 

Of  garden  furniture,  we  should  be  sparing;  it  is  easy  to 
overload.  The  sundial  frequently  marks  the  center  and  the  less 
common  bird  bath  or  drinking  cup  is  sometimes  found.  These 
can  be  imitated  in  cement,  but  care  should  be  taken  to  retain 
the  color  and  texture  of  the  local  stone. 

Good  old-fashioned  designs  for  the  garden  seats  in  wood 
have  been  reproduced  and  are  frequently  valuable  in  our  garden. 
It  might  be  well,  however,  that  these  be  unpainted  and  given  a 
thorough  application  of  creosote  oil;  the  legs  particularly  should 
be  soaked  in  it.  They  may  be  used  in  the  natural  wood  if  practi- 
cal, but  a  coat  of  paint  may  be  required.  Be  careful  of  the  use 
of  white;  it  may  be  too  strong  for  the  setting.  Do  not  place 
a  seat  to  look  into  the  sun,  as  its  use  is  thereby  limited. 

The  summer-house  and  the  arbor  make  the  garden  habitable. 
They  should  never  be  rustic  and  the  caution  as  to  white  paint 
should  be  remembered  here,  for  the  office  of  these  in  the  garden 
is  rather  that  of  a  background  than  as  a  straight  ornament. 
What  they  may  effect  in  this  last  capacity  should  be  done  as  a 
subdued  silhouette.  Their  placing  is  confined  to  the  rim  of  the 
enclosure,  rather  than  its  center  and  for  the  most  part  they  are 
located  on  the  axis.  Thus  situated  they  command  a  view  of  the 
garden  on  one  hand  and  whatever  vista  or  general  view  we  have 
planned  to  meet  the  emergency. 


THE  GARDEN 


147 


As  a  step  between  the  enclosed  garden  and  the  lengthened 
path — with  which,  by  the  way,  one  can  do  delightful  things  in  the 
way  of  banking  shrubs  and  touches  of  smaller  planting — there 
is  a  floral  treatment  which  is  merely  the  elaboration  of  a  certain 
short  portion  of  some  important  path.     Beyond  this  elaboration 


■;^  *  \ir--  ■"■■■■ 


.V 


Fig.    28 — A    simple    motive  Fig.    29 — Plan    of    an    elaborate    walk    from    house    to 

for     the     flat     country.     In  vegetable    garden.     H,    Hedge;    L,    Lilies;    Lc,    Lilac; 

the     view     from    the    arbor  P,    Peony;    Py,    Poppy;    Px,    Phlox;    T,    Slight   terrace; 

the  upright  trees  destroy  R,  Roses;  W,  White  Lily;  S,  Small  planting;  Hy, 
the    flat    monotony    of    the  Hydrangea;  A,  To  house,  B,  To  garden;  G,  Grass 

landscape.     A,      Arbor;      P, 
Small  planting;  L,  Larch 

there  may  be  no  attempt  to  decorate.  For  him  who  has  not  the 
time  to  dally  in  the  garden,  it  is  a  special  treat.  If  one  be  busy 
there  is  little  time  lost  by  it  and,  we  can  believe,  a  whole  lot 
gained.  With  this  treatment,  the  arbor  may  be  used  to  advan- 
tage, as  one  can  pass  through  it  and  its  natural  location  would 
seem  to  be  in  the  center. 

We  can  hardly  close  this  chapter  without  a  brief  reference 
to  wild  flowers.  Whether  they  may  be  used  in  our  garden 
scheme  is  a  question  to  be  determined  by  the  case  in  hand,  but 
they  surely  have  utility  as  informal  borders  and  simple  little 
compositions  of  their  own.  That  they  should  not  play  a  too 
important  part  with  the  house  as  a  background  is  also  evident. 
Golden  rod  and  asters  in  particular  have  varieties  enough  to 
effect  an  extended  flowering.  Perhaps  one  might  try  a  simple 
garden,  entirely  of  wild  flowers.  It  would  differ  from  our 
domesticated  garden  in  many  ways;  we  would  be  using  another 
palette,  other  brushes. 


Chaptef  Ten 
FENCES  ^  ENCLOSURES 


THE  question  of  boundaries  has  ever  been  one  of  grave 
dispute  with  the  world  at  large;  let  there  be  no  doubts 
left  as  to  yours.  The  function  of  the  fence  is,  be- 
sides that  of  an  enclosing  barrier,  one  of  boundary.  So 
that  if  your  fence  in  itself  be  not  lasting  or  exact  in  its  location, 
it  should  be  supplemented  by  a  stone  bound-stone,  plainly 
marked  and  duly  recorded  in  your  plan  on  file.  The  stone  wall 
and  snake  fence  are  examples  of  the  indefinite  and  crude  bounds 
and  while  they  may  do  well  enough  as  barriers  for  lands  of  little 
value,  their  use  on  cleared  and  more  valuable  lands  is  not  ordi- 
narily advisable.  The  snake  fence  is,  in  fact,  from  its  character, 
outlawed  as  an  inter-boundary.  There  are  others  of  a  like 
rambling  and  indefinite  nature  which  are  sectional,  such  as  the 
stump  fence  of  Maine.  These,  however,  have  their  use,  as  in- 
terior barriers. 

Old-time  bounds  were  vague  and  passing;  an  oak  tree  can- 
not be  expected  to  last  forever.  Many  fences,  which  were  evi- 
dently intended  to  run  straight,  on  the  contrary  described  most 

148 


FENCES  AND  ENCLOSURES  149 

■ 

beautiful  curves.  Thickness  of  growth  or  perhaps  more  often 
a  rough  land  contour,  where  one  frequently  lost  sight  of  their 
line  and  consequently  their  direction,  was  largely  to  blame  for 
this.  Such  old  lines  it  is  best  to  preserve  as  they  exist;  their 
location  has  probably  established  them,  over  and  above  any 
description. 

The  laws  of  a  state  regulate  the  character  of  a  fence — that 
is,  certain  materials  must  follow  certain  lines  and  be  of  a  certain 
height  to  cover  the  law  relating  to  a  "legal"  fence.  Before 
building  or  rebuilding,  this  law  is  a  good  thing  to  be  familiar 
with.  It  is  also  understood  that  each  party  to  the  boundary 
shall  maintain  his  half  of  it  and  erect  it,  if  it  does  not  already 
exist.  You  can  only  exact  of  your  neighbor,  for  his  half,  a  legal 
fence;  if  you  desire  something  different  you  must  make  up  the 
difference  in  cost — perhaps  maintain  the  whole  thing. 

A  boundary  line  has  no  width  and  therefore  the  modern 
wire  fence  comes  nearest  to  locating  it  exactly;  the  wire  being 
on  the  line  and  the  posts  on  the  property  of  the  maintainer. 
This  is  the  scheme  of  all  similar  fences,  but  with  the  stone  wall, 
the  center  is  conmionly  the  line,  which  fact  gives  either  party 
the  right  to  add  stone  to  it,  an  important  consideration  with  the 
old-time  farmer. 

A  fence  or  barrier  on  the  highway  is  supposed  to  be  located 
entirely  on  the  property  of  the  abutter;  but  our  records  show 
that  the  public  thoroughfare  was  constantly  encroached  upon. 
We  wonder  at  the  narrow  streets  of  Boston,  yet  they  were  ample 
as  laid  out.  Our  forefathers  stole  lands  from  the  highway  and 
in  many  rural  districts  the  practice  has  not  been  discontinued. 

Perhaps  it  might  be  well  to  say  a  word  regarding  the  com- 
mon old  fences  one  may  find,  and  probably  the  oldest  are  the 
stone  wall  and  the  rail  fence,  the  latter  being  the  older.  The 
sort  described  in  our  early  records  was  the  common  form  in 
which  the  posts  were  pierced  to  receive  the  rails.  Where  one 
has  such  in  fairly  good  condition,  and  of  some  length,  it  may 
pay  to  keep  and  repair.  It  is  not,  however,  a  good  model  to  re- 
build on.  We  have  spoken  disparagingly  of  the  stone  wall  and, 
in  so  doing,  had  in  mind  the  common  result  of  the  hasty  throwing 
together  of  all  sorts  of  stone  from  the  field. 

If  the  wall  is  really  built,  it  may  last  indefinitely,  provided 


150  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

the  public  will  let  it  alone.  There  is,  however,  the  common  tres- 
passer who  will  use  your  land  as  a  thoroughfare  and  pull  down 
enough  of  your  wall  to  make  his  passage  easy.  There  is  also 
the  rabbit  hunter.  This  annoying  fellow,  upon  finding  his  quarry 
sheltered  in  your  wall,  will  demolish  it  indefinitely  in  dislodging 
his  victim.  Poison  ivy  finds  shelter  in  it  and  is  almost  impossible 
to  dislodge.  Of  course  it  stands  to  reason  that  any  wall  laid  in 
part  cement  mortar,  no  matter  how  roughly  done,  is  superior  to 
a  dry  wall.  Such  work,  however,  adds  expense.  It  can,  how- 
ever be  laid  to  imitate  a  dry  wall  by  keeping  the  mortar  back 
from  the  face  of  the  masonry.  If  the  top  of  the  wall  be  relaid 
in  mortar  for  about  a  foot,  and  the  side  pointed  at  leisure,  it 
will  foil  both  the  general  public  and  the  rabbit  fiend.  It  is  a 
common  practice  to  extend  a  masonry  foundation  about  three 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ground  to  avoid  heaving  by  frost, 
and  such,  of  course,  is  the  best  practice ;  but  with  the  stone  wall, 
its  length  makes  such  treatment  very  expensive.  The  old  wall 
had,  usually,  a  large  footing  sunk  below  the  surface,  which,  to- 
gether with  its  width  and  the  comparative  lowness  of  the  super- 
structure, made  it  firm  and  secure.  If  one  is  bothered  with 
outside  invasion,  broken  glass  set  in  a  concrete  top  will  probably 
be  annoying  enough  to  be  effective. 

The  modem  wire  fence  is  the  cheapest  and  easiest  to  keep 
in  repair,  and  by  wire  we  do  not  mean  the  wire  strand.  There 
are  many  wire-mesh  fencings  on  the  market,  one-half  of  which 
perhaps  are  fit  to  spend  money  on.  A  good  lock  joint,  weld,  or 
knot  is  essential  and  further,  a  mesh  that  will  stretch  evenly  and 
without  losing  shape.  The  wire  fence  is  of  course  at  the  mercy 
of  the  wire  cutter,  but  it  is  easily  repaired.  Ordinarily  a  locust 
or  chestnut  post  may  be  used;  but  they  will  last  longer  in  the 
ground  and  pay  for  the  extra  trouble,  if  the  butts  are  treated 
with  creosote,  charred  or  dipped.  Farmer's  Bulletin,  No.  387, 
describes  these  several  processes  at  length  and  more  fully  than 
our  limited  space  will  allow,  yet  we  would  suggest  briefly  that 
the  posts  be  thoroughly  seasoned  so  as  to  exclude  the  water  as 
such  repels  all  preservatives.  Charring  can  be  done  over  an 
open  fire  or  the  post  can  be  saturated  with  oil  and  burned  in 
this  way.  Care  should  be  taken  not  to  burn  too  deeply.  As 
painting  is  inferior  to  dipping  we  will  pass  over  it.     Petroleum 


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i£SM« 


^iH 


An  old  enckiscd   front   yard;   a  rapidly  disappearing  feature,  which  was  very  common  at 
one    time.     It    suggests    small    planting    and    climbers    on    the    house 


A   new   gate   in   an   old   fence,   which   anticipates   the   possible   breaking  of   pickets   by   a 
cap    and    likely    sagging   by   the    introduction    of    a    brace 


qpgpqp  qp  gpqpgp  qpqpepgp  eji2)gg>qp  qjagj^egaqp  gpejjsxej^  gpejpejg«q]^ 


v"i'";i. 


A   gateway   in   the   style  of  the   Greek   Revival   in    which    are   some   rather   good   and 
interesting  details.     The  fence   sill   is   well   supported 


There  is  no  eianorate  treatment  to  this  fence,  but  it  suggests  being  put  there  with  a 
purpose.     There  is  a  stone  base  or  foundation  below  the  wood  fence  sill 


FENCES  AND  ENCLOSURES  151 

tar,  coal  tar  and  creosote  may  be  used  for  the  latter  treatment. 
Perhaps  the  best  results  are  gotten  by  immersing  the  heated  post 
in  coal  tar  creosote. 

Sometimes  it  is  best  to  treat  the  entire  post.  In  any  event 
the  top,  which  is  cut  on  a  slant  to  shed  the  water,  should  be  so 
treated.  Posts  are  commonly  set  three  feet  in  the  ground  and 
the  treatment  should  extend  at  least  one  foot  above.  The  ex- 
posed portion  of  the  fence  may  be  painted  later ;  creosote  oil  and 
paint  in  equal  parts  being  excellent  for  either  dipping  or  brush 
work. 

Posts  for  wire  should  be  spaced  about  ten  feet  apart;  not 
more  than  twelve  at  the  most.  Loose  stone  or  pebbles  at  the 
bottom  of  the  post  hole  will  help  to  keep  the  butt  of  the  post 
from  moisture.  One  of  the  best  methods  of  treating  a  wire 
fence  is  with  a  strand  of  barbed  wire  at  the  top,  where  it  is  out  of 
the  way  of  the  stock,  to  which  it  is  a  menace.  A  strand  of  barbed 
wire  on  each  side  of  the  post  is  a  mean  thing  to  straddle  over. 
If  a  piece  of  wood  be  made  fast  to  the  tops  of  the  posts  and  ex- 
tended toward  the  property  of  the  maintainer,  the  two  strands 
may  be  made  more  effective  by  spacing  them  one  foot  apart. 
These  strands  should  be  pulled  as  taut  as  possible.  Should 
dogs,  or  other  animals,  annoy  by  digging  under  the  wire  mesh, 
a  strand  of  barbed  wire  sunk  slightly  in  the  ground  or  a  small 
sunken  stone  wall  will  probably  abolish  the  evil. 

Of  late  years  we  hear  much  of  concrete  posts.  These  are 
easily  made  at  home  from  home-made  molds  of  wood.  The 
common  form  used  is  the  tapering,  which  saves  material.  Wire 
re-enforcements  are  used  in  their  making,  and  incorporated 
staples  allow  for  the  attaching  of  the  fencing.  Great  care  should 
be  exercised  in  their  setting,  as  the  staples  establish  the  height  of 
your  fencing  and  cannot  be  shifted;  therefore  they  must  be  in 
line.  The  cement  post  is  not  so  strong  as  the  wooden  post  of 
equal  size,  but  unless  it  has  to  stand  the  strain  of  uneasy  and  in- 
quisitive stock,  it  will  probably  answer  all  ordinary  requirements. 
Farmer's  Bulletin,  No.  235,  gives  a  detailed  description  of  their 
manufacture. 

So  far  we  have  dwelt  only  with  the  common  forms  of  fenc- 
ing as  bound  and  barrier  between  estates.  We  have  mentioned 
these  first  because  of  their  prime  importance;  they  have  little 


152  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

artistic  value.  More  interesting  is  the  front  or  highway  prob- 
lem and  with  such,  varied  treatments  arise  from  varied  condi- 
tions. There  are  many  considerations  which  go  far  to  establish 
the  lines  on  which  a  problem  may  be  solved.  The  relation  to 
the  highway,  both  in  level  and  in  distance,  the  presence  of  over- 
shadowing trees,  the  importance  of  the  highway  itself  and  last 
but  not  least,  the  style  and  general  character  of  the  house. 
There  are  those  of  course  who  open  up  their  grounds  to  the  in- 
vasion of  everything  that  travels  on  legs  by  omitting  the  fence, 
but  this,  we  feel,  is  a  great  mistake. 

The  reader  has,  without  doubt,  noticed  the  little  enclosed 
front  yards  of  which  a  few  examples  are  left.  Generally  these 
were  the  width  of  the  house,  such  being  their  early  form.  This 
form  of  yard  follows  an  old  tradition  dating  back  to  feudal 
times.  In  those  days  the  habitation  was  the  castle — a  hollow 
square — a  fortress,  which  the  times  demanded.  With  the  decline 
of  feudalism,  the  hollow  square  dropped  one  of  its  sides,  but 
retained  its  semblance  in  a  high  wall.  Later,  the  two  flanking 
sides  or  wings  gave  place  to  the  continuation  of  the  front  wall. 
Still  later,  the  enclosure  became  commonly  a  terrace,  the  fence 
superseded  the  wall.  Here  is  the  evolution  of  your  front  yard, 
which  was  in  favor  even  later  than  the  year  1800.  It  became 
simplified,  however,  prior  to  this  in  eliminating  the  flanking 
fences.  Both  in  its  original  and  later  state,  it  was  a  thing  apart 
from  the  extensions  of  the  front  bound,  which  were  of  a  simpler 
character.  With  the  later  form  the  front  portion,  which  stood 
for  the  house,  perhaps  included  in  its  motive  the  side  gate  and 
the  driveway  gate.  This  difl'erence  in  the  treatment  of  the  front 
fence  from  that  of  the  flanking  fence  is  characteristic  of  Colonial 
work  and  generally  holds  good  with  all  but  the  simplest  problem. 

Our  earliest  barrier  was  the  pale  or  picket  fence  and  it  has 
changed  but  little  in  the  simpler  examples  of  to-day.  Old 
English  specimens  show  many  variations  which  have  not  sur- 
vived with  us.  The  roughly  shaped  pickets  of  unequal  width, 
left  to  weather,  or  stained  gray  or  brown,  may  do  admirably 
for  a  simple  cottage,  in  which  one  may  be  retaining  the  weathered 
effect.  Such  efl'orts  require  little  or  no  gate-post  and  the  gate  is 
really  a  section  of  the  fence. 

There  are  many  forms  of  the  picket  fence :  sharp  and  square 


FENCES  AND  ENCLOSURES  153 

tops,  jig-sawed  and  capped,  but  in  all  they  rely  on  the  same 
principles  of  construction.  There  is  the  post,  the  top  and  bot- 
tom rails  and  the  pickets.  The  posts  may  be  treated,  to  pro- 
long their  usefulness,  as  has  already  been  described,  but  for  a 
short  fence  one  will  find  that  a  piece  of  iron,  one  and  one-quarter 
of  an  inch  square,  set  in  a  stone  or  concrete  footing,  will  out- 
wear the  wooden  post  enough  to  more  than  pay  the  initial  ex- 
pense. This  iron  may  not  extend  the  full  height  of  the  fence,  but 
be  bolted  to  a  wooden  plank  post,  serving  to  support  it.  If  stone 
is  used,  the  iron  may  be  set  in  sulphur  (the  old-time  custom), 
instead  of  lead.  In  constructing  boxed  fence  posts  with  the 
above  principle,  it  will  be  necessary  to  use  a  plank  form  to  build 
upon,  and  these  are  best  affixed  with  the  aid  of  an  iron  strap 
welded  to  the  iron  post  at  right  angles,  through  which  screws 
may  be  driven  into  the  plank  forms.  This  scheme  is,  however, 
limited;  as  a  heavy  gate  cannot  be  hung  upon  it  without  re-en- 
forcement, although  the  fence  should  help  to  steady  it  when  the 
swinging  member  is  closed.  One  occasionally  runs  across  an 
example  of  the  later  period,  set  near  to  the  highway  in  which  the 
balustrade  of  the  porch  or  other  similar  feature  is  followed  in  the 
fence  and  which  classes  the  two  at  once  as  part  of  one  scheme. 

It  might  be  well  to  mention  the  fact  that  all  picket  butts, 
fence  skirtings  (or  bases),  which  are  liable  to  come  in  contact 
with  the  ground  should  be  treated  by  some  accepted  method. 
The  decay  of  such  parts  of  fences  is  their  great  drawback,  and 
the  extra  labor  and  expense  will  pay  for  itself.  Later  and 
more  elaborate  forms  of  the  picket  fence  anticipated  such  diffi- 
culties by  superimposing  the  fence  on  a  low  brick  wall;  other 
variations  returned  again  to  the  wood,  as  a  base. 

While  the  picket  fence  as  a  front  feature  is  ordinarily  "ex- 
tended" by  a  simpler  type  in  wood,  the  stone  wall  may  be  used 
in  its  stead,  and  such  should  be  laid  in  mortar.  If  in  such  combi- 
nation a  stone  footing  be  continued  under  the  wooden  portion, 
with  perhaps  the  additional  note  of  stone  gate-posts,  the  harmony 
will  be  more  complete.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the 
fence  caps  should  be  of  wood.  A  more  elaborate  and  delicate 
effect  may  be  obtained  by  substituting  brick,  or  perhaps  a  com- 
bination in  which  the  stone  is  the  core  of  the  extended  walls 
only,  leaving  the  base,  cap  and  post  of  brick.     There  are  cases 


154  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

which  warrant  the  use  of  the  stone  wall  in  front  of  the  house; 
ordinarily,  however,  this  function  should  be  taken  by  wood  with 
a  wooden  structure. 

The  common  old  type  of  high  board  fence  is  a  telling  fea- 
ture in  front  of  the  small  orchard  or  garden  of  small  fruits. 
With  it  there  are  many  chances  for  variation.  Boards  may  be 
of  varying  widths,  perhaps  laid  ^n  inch  and  one-half  apart,  the 
tops  saw-tooth  or  varying  in  height.  The  high  price  of  wood, 
however,  makes  any  extended  use  of  this  material,  for  such  pur- 
poses, out  of  the  question  for  most  of  us. 

While  the  stone  wall  has  little  chance  of  fitting  into  the 
front  scheme  of  the  small  estate  and  the  wooden  house,  it  may 
be  just  the  thing  for  the  larger  layout,  and  particularly  in  case 
the  buildings  set  well  back  from  the  street.  As  wood  is  ahvays 
a  material  that  seems  to  fit  into  close  fellowship  with  the  wooden 
structure,  the  wooden  fence  may  be  used  here  as  an  enclosure, 
independent  of  the  fencing  scheme  of  the  highway.  At  all  events, 
the  remoteness  of  the  house  naturally  suggests  a  less  elaborate 
outlay  in  the  character  of  the  highway  barrier. 

Where  the  land  is  higher  than  the  roadway,  a  stone  retain- 
ing wall  may  be  used  and  if  the  grade  is  not  high  enough  to 
make  a  sufficient  barrier  of  it,  a  surmounting  motive  may  be 
added.  Where  your  house  is  remote  from  the  road,  a  picket 
fence  makes  a  good  supplement  and  allows  of  a  view  through  it 
from  the  highway.  If  the  buildings  are  near  the  road,  a  hedge 
may  answer  the  purpose,  or  perhaps  a  wire  or  lattice  fence,  on 
which  should  be  grown  some  sort  of  vine,  will  be  suitable.  The 
plain  wire  fence  hardly  has  a  place  here;  it  may  be  used  as  a 
core  of  a  hedge  and  thus  establish  its  permanency. 

One  may  gather  from  the  foregoing  that  the  nearness  of 
the  house  to  the  highway  demands  privacy;  its  remoteness,  open- 
ness. The  important  highway  suggests  more  elaboration  than 
that  of  the  minor  and  remote  road.  Trees  which  shade  the  front 
yard,  limit  the  possibilities  of  your  flower  garden  to  such  varieties 
as  do  well  in  the  shade,  and  the  litter  that  falls  from  them  stains 
your  fence  and  suggests  anything  but  white  paint. 

The  tree  itself  may  play  an  important  part  in  the  line  of 
demarcation  by  suggestion.  While  frequently  supplemented  by 
the  fence  or  wall,  it  may  be  used  alone  as  with  a  driveway  or 


All    old   fence   at    Salem,    Mass.      Built   at   the   height   of   the    Georgian    influence.      The 
design    is    clean,    well-studied    and    well-pioportioned,    as    is    readily    seen    by    a    careful 

examination 


dbdfed&cl&  6l&€l&d&d&6l&d&d!3  g!Ib<^c!&  dS)d&dE)dE>  d&dM&  <^  d&d&d& 


& 


gpqpqp  qp  gpqpqp  gp<^gpgp  qpg^gp  qj^gjagjsqpqpqgqja  gp^gp^ 


FENCES  AND  ENCLOSURES  155 

lane.  If  such  are  newly  planted  allowance  should  be  made  for 
their  growth  and  expansion.  The  common  fence,  on  the  rail 
principle  in  which  the  rail  is  a  sawed  board,  makes  an  excellent 
auxiliary  for  maple  and  elms.  Trees,  however,  take  time  to 
grow  and  the  fulfillment  of  your  feature  may  take  years. 

The  hedge  offers  many  possibilities  for  front  and  interior 
barriers,  not  afforded  by  the  fence  or  wall.  It  is  at  once  from 
its  nature,  a  part  of  the  landscape  and  melts  into  it  more  readily 
than  other  more  artificial  contrivances.  If  one  is  starting  a 
hedge  we  advise  strongly  the  incorporation  of  a  wire  fence  in 
the  center  as  a  core.  If  it  is  to  be  a  front  barrier,  and  as  such 
must  be  made  to  last  indefinitely,  it  had  best  be  made  with  iron 
or  concrete  posts  in  the  manner  already  described.  Any  good 
mesh  fencing  or  barbed  wire  strands  will  serve  the  purpose  and 
perhaps  the  former  will  lend  itself  about  as  readily  to  our  ends 
as  a  discourager  of  invaders  as  we  could  wish,  provided  a  strand 
of  barbed  wire  be  just  sunk  in  the  ground  and  another  stretched 
at  the  top.  These  last  will  dispose  of  the  dog  and  the  climber. 
The  trespasser  is  a  nuisance.  He  may  have  the  best  intentions 
in  the  world  and  yet  he  will  insist  on  making  a  highway  of  your 
grounds.  Have  you  a  nursery  of  choice  plants,  he  will  find  it; 
have  you  wasted  a  year  over  grape  cuttings,  he  will  blunder  into 
them;  whatever  you  wish  to  preserve  he  will  destroy  as  if  fated. 
Nip  this  in  the  bud ;  later  it  is  hard  to  stop. 

We  commonly  understand  the  hedge  to  be  of  evergreen, 
spruce,  hemlock,  cedar,  box  or  privet.  As  a  matter  of  fact  most 
any  hardy  flowering  shrub  will  answer,  provided  it  be  not  located 
where  its  blossoms  offer  too  much  temptation  to  the  public. 
Barberiy  and  japonica  are  in  themselves  more  or  less  difficult 
to  penetrate,  but  there  is  the  tough  hided  ox  and  the  fool  cow  to 
be  reckoned  with. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  vine-clad  fence  and  as  a 
quick-growing  substitute  for  the  hedge  it  is  both  interesting  and 
effective.  For  the  summer  problem,  one  sees  but  little  of  the 
naked  vine  and  fencing  and  hence  nothing  is  lost ;  but  for  winter, 
the  snow-ladened  evergreen  hedge  has  a  charm  of  its  own  and 
even  the  deciduous  article  is  more  convincing  than  the  skeleton 
of  loveliness  offered  by  the  clinging  vine. 

Where  one  boasts  of  the  kitchen  garden,  the  low  hedge  is 


156  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

often  effective  as  a  defining  line;  it  may  be  utilized  as  a  wind- 
break as  well.  If  the  garden  is  small  and  to  be  spaded,  one  need 
allow  only  for  the  unloading  of  dressing  and  removal  of  litter, 
but  where  the  plot  is  large  enough  to  plow,  the  ends  should  be 
left  open  to  allow  of  the  turning  of  the  plow  team.  Of  course 
the  board  fence  may  be  substituted  for  a  wind-break  or  it  can  be 
used  back  of  the  low  hedge  in  conjunction  with  it. 

The  laundry  yard  is  not  a  feature  of  the  Colonial  style,  nor 
is  it  properly  a  part  of  any  problem  other  than  in  the  more 
elaborate  house.  Even  then  it  is  properly  a  part  of  the  house,  as 
is  also  in  a  measure  the  enclosed  front  yard.  When  detached, 
however,  it  may  be  handled  independently.  The  diamond  lattice 
and  the  arbor  oiFer  our  best  suggestions  for  the  above ;  it  requires 
that,  while  serving  as  a  screen,  the  air  shall,  at  the  same  time, 
draw  through  it. 

There  are  some  fences,  characteristic  of  various  localities, 
which,  while  being  altogether  inadequate  for  practical,  or  accurate 
inter-boundaries,  are  excellent  as  front  or  interior  decorative 
fences  under  certain  conditions.  We  recall  two  of  a  rather 
diverse  nature,  which  will  serve  to  illustrate.  In  certain  parts 
of  Maine,  where  a  piece  of  land  has  been  cleared  of  timber,  the 
stumps  have  been  removed  so  as  to  make  the  land  available  for 
mowing.  These  have  been  utilized  as  fences  by  throwing  them 
over  on  one  side  with  the  abbreviated  roots  reaching  skyward. 
Prior  to  their  removal,  the  land  has  been  very  likely  burned  over 
to  get  rid  of  the  brush  and  the  stumps  had  become  charred ;  this 
serves  well  in  prolonging  the  life  of  the  stump.  There  is  nothing 
more  picturesque  than  a  stump  fence,  but  it  demands  the  real 
country  and  is  probably  best  as  a  side  extension  only  on  the 
front.  It  forms  a  most  excellent  trellis  for  vines  and  if  these  be 
of  the  brier  sort  with  the  occasional  judicious  interjections  of 
a  little  barbed  wire  the  ensemble  is  well  nigh  impregnable. 

The  other,  which  is  of  entirely  different  nature,  is  the  flag 
fence  of  Connecticut.  Of  this  we  have  noted  but  a  few  speci- 
mens. It  consists  of  more  or  less  rough  slabs  set  on  end  in  the 
ground.  Its  slightest  grave-yard  suggestion  is  almost  elim- 
inated by  the  stones  being  set  close  together.  Where  an 
effective  barrier  is  desired  this  will  not  answer  and  yet  it  might 
be  effective  as  such,  if  auxihary  to  a  retaining  wall.     It  needs 


FENCES  AND  ENCLOSURES  157; 

in  any  case  the  brightening  effect  of  flowers  and  as  a  wind-break 
and  backing  to  small  planting,  it  may  flank  the  foot  path  or  be 
used  in  enclosing  a  small  garden. 

Probably  the  most  interesting  feature  of  the  fence  prob- 
lem is  the  gate  or  gateway.  Its  treatment  is  of  wide  latitude; 
its  possibilities,  almost  without  limit.  One  may  evolve  new 
ideas  through  a  process  of  well  judged  combinations,  but  what- 
ever the  result,  it  should  be  limited  by  the  principles  of  good 
construction.  Under  all  circumstances  it  should  belong  to  the 
place  in  which  it  is  used,  suggesting  either  in  line  or  detail  the 
family  resemblance  to  the  all-important  flanking  barrier. 

In  its  construction,  the  first  principle  is,  that  the  post  on 
which  the  gate  is  hung  and  which  naturally  receives  more  or 
less  side  strain  from  the  weight  of  the  gate,  should  be  either 
rigid  enough  in  itself  or  so  braced  as. to  resist  this  strain.  The 
second  principle  requires,  that  the  gate  itself  shall  be  so  braced 
as  to  keep  its  shape  and  be  free  from  the  danger  of  sagging. 
Unfortunately,  most  old  examples  have  not  been  as  carefully 
considered  in  these  respects  as  we  could  wish  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, have  sufl'ered  from  it.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  contemplate 
a  delightful  old  design  in  which  it  has  been  necessary  to  use 
methods  foreign  to  the  original  conventions,  to  overcome  the 
ever-to-be-considered  question  of  gravity.  "Why  not  have 
done  this  in  the  first  place?"  one  very  naturally  asks  and  we 
heartily  echo  the  query. 

A  gate  is  in  repose  when  it  is  shut  and  when  it  is  open,  and 
in  both  positions  it  should  have  something  to  rest  on.  When 
closed,  the  post  on  which  it  is  hung,  being  secured  to  the  barrier 
of  which  it  is  a  part,  is  capable  of  resisting  the  strain.  One 
can  readily  see  that  the  weak  point  is  when  the  gate  is  off  its 
two  supports.  Very  naturally,  the  wider  the  gate,  the  greater 
the  strain  and  this  at  once  brings  us  to  the  ordinary  farm  gate, 
as  a  simple  example  of  the  type.  The  convenient  form  of  this, 
is  that  which  we  find  pictured  on  old  plans  of  the  Elizabethan 
and  First  Settlement  periods: — sawed  rail  with  a  brace,  extend- 
ing from  the  foot  of  its  extreme  swing  to  the  top  of  the  high  post 
on  which  the  structure  is  hung.  There  is  a  tremendous  leverage 
exerted  on  this  big  post  and  it  must  be  very  solid  and  well  set 
to  keep  straight.     In  some  parts  of  the  country  where  granite 


158 


RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 


quarries  were  formerly  worked,  one  finds  many  rough  ashlar 
underpinnings  and  very  likely  great  stone  posts,  which  support 
great  gates  with  apparently  as  little  trouble  as  if  they  were 
paper. 

There  is  a  later  form  of  the  above  gate,  which  has  aban- 
doned the  high  post  and  long  brace;  to  this  contrivance,  one  is 


Fig.   31— Proper  bracing   for   a  wide 


Fig.  30 — Balanced  gate  and  stile 


simply  a  slave.  The  best  farm  gate  we  know  of  is  that  com- 
monly seen  in  parts  of  Maine,  but  which  seems  to  be  known 
elsewhere,  although  we  do  not  remember  having  seen  it.  It 
gets  rid  of  the  leverage  at  once  by  adopting  the  principles  of 
balance.  The  section  of  a  tree  trunk  which  takes  the  most  of 
the  strain  is  pivoted  on  the  top  of  a  good  stout  post  somewhat 
higher  than  the  adjoining  fence  or  wall.  The  gate  hangs  from 
the  longer  and  lighter  end,  while  the  balancing  end,  which  is 
also  the  butt  of  the  tree,  extends  on  its  side  of  the  post  about 
two-thirds  of  the  distance  of  its  opposite.  On  the  end  of  the 
butt  is  a  wooden  box,  in  shape  much  like  a  mason's  hod,  into 
which  field  stones  are  heaped,  until  the  necessary  balance  is  ef- 
fected. A  good,  strong,  true  post  and  a  sufficient  beam  are  all 
that  are  necessary  to  dispose  of  our  gate  worries. 

The  house  gate  is,  after  all,  the  one  where  variety  may  be 
secured.  Ordinarily  it  has  gate  posts  which  are  emphatic 
enough  in  design  to  become  a  feature,  but  sometimes  they  are 
insignificant,  being,  with  the  gate,  but  a  part  of  the  fence.  In 
its  simplest  form  this  was  neither  the  best  of  taste,  nor  con- 
venient, as  it  often  caused  the  stranger  much  confusion  in  its 
location.  Developed,  the  type  had  its  excuse  in  the  equal  spac- 
ing of  ornamental  fence-posts  across  the  entire  front;  in  this 
scheme  it  was  judged  unwise  to  disturb  the  simple  spacing  of 
these  units.  We  cannot  help  thinking,  however,  that  the  gate- 
way should  have  some  definition  and  individuality  of  its  own. 


This  fence  is  unusual  as  well  as  simple.     The  lattice  effect  is  not  elaborate  enough  to 
be   tiresome   and  the   woodwork   is   kept   well   above   the   dirt 


The  enclosed  walk  is  often  a  feature  in  which  one  is  lost  to  the  influence  of  the  out- 
side.     It    controls    narrow   confines    and    leads    to    a    definite    openness 


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FENCES  AND  ENCLOSURES  159 

if  only  from  the  practical  point  of  view.  In  any  event  the 
whole  motive  should  be  simple  enough  to  belong  to  the  house 
and  the  style  should  not  be  foreign  to  the  locality.  There 
should  be  good  material  at  hand  and  such  and  such  only  will 
give  you  the  individuality  of  the  home  touch.  It  is  true  that 
foreign  lines  may  be  adapted,  but  in  so  doing,  one  must  grasp 
the  true  intention  of  localism  and  be  governed  by  it.  In  the 
mass  of  gateways,  the  two  posts  are  separate,  but  sometimes  we 
find  them  yoked  or  connected  by  an  arch.  In  some  later  ex- 
amples, too,  the  iron  motive  which  sei'ved  to  support  the  lantern, 
also  affected  this.  Most  of  this  iron-work  does  not  belong  to 
the  rest  of  the  design,  being  attached  in  any  way  that  came 
handy;  its  outgrowth  from  the  ball  or  urn  is  of  course  bad  taste. 

Old-time  gate-hinges  were  of  the  strap  pattern  and  this  is 
as  it  should  be.  For  farm  gates,  the  fastening  may  be  a  simple 
wooden  latch  or  bolt,  or  where  it  may  be  tampered  with,  a  hasp 
and  padlock.  The  wooden  latch  might  also  be  adapted  to  the 
gate  of  the  house  front  motive,  that  is,  in  simple  and  primitive 
types;  more  elaborate  problems  might  use  the  old-time  door 
latch  with  effective  results,  particularly  if  the  same  be  of  iron. 

The  entrance  without  the  gate  is  not  a  thing  to  be  advised. 
There  are  few  conditions  under  which  it  may  be  used  without 
sacrifice  to  privacy  and  independence.  If  your  entrance  pass- 
age be  fenced  in  with  hedge,  or  otherwise,  contain  nothing  of 
a  private  nature  (as  flowers),  and  be  entirely  cut  off  from  the 
grounds  proper,  the  gate  may  be  omitted.  In  like  manner, 
the  entrance  which  relies  on  steps  from  the  street  level  to  the 
higher  grade  of  the  house,  may  be  more  effective  without  the 
member  in  question. 

In  the  pleached  entrance  lies,  perhaps,  the  best  method  of 
treating  the  opening  in  the  hedge;  it  always  counts  for  what  it 
is.  Generally  it  is  unclosed  by  a  gate,  but  the  latter  may  be 
used  nevertheless  with  success,  provided  its  lines  are  made  to 
fit  those  of  evergreen  motive. 

The  ordinary  turn-stile  has  possibilities,  but  one  will  prob- 
ably have  to  look  for  examples  on  the  other  side  of  the  water 
as  our  ever  restless  native  could  hardly  be  content  with  such  a 
primitive  contrivance.  There  is  a  common  English  stile,  which 
provides  for  the  passage  over  the  wall  by  means  of  steps  on 


160  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

either  side.  Occasionally  we  see  this  here,  and  there  is  a  varia- 
tion, in  which  the  steps  are  stone  flags  built  into  the  wall,  each 
one  free  of  its  neighbor.  While  the  stile  is  far  from  fitting 
every  problem,  it  has  excellent  possibilities  and  should  by  all 
means  be  included  in  your  list  as  such. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  fence  problem  as  one  of  new  build- 
ing; such  will  be  the  majority  of  cases.  The  fence,  as  ordinarily 
constructed,  was  short-lived  and  when  it  passed,  it  was  rebuilt 
on  up-to-date  lines.  It  is  only  with  those  who  have  had  the 
means  and  the  inclination,  that  some  old  and  elaborate  exam- 
ples are  allowed  to  exist,  or  with  those  too  poor,  or  otherwise 
occupied,  to  rebuild. 

The  old  sign  board  is  a  distinctive  ear-mark  of  the  old- 
time  tavern  and  savors  of  the  post-road  and  the  stage-coach. 
As  a  possibility  in  our  reclamation,  it  can  have  but  one  use: — 
that  of  bearing  the  name  we  may  have  chosen,  for  it  is  a  common 
frailty  amongst  Xis — that  of  naming  things — and  as  our  old 
house  is  frequently  a  tavern,  it  can  hardly  be  out  of  place.  Our 
only  care  should  be  that  the  name  does  not  suggest  a  tavern, 
else  there  may  be  much  cause  for  annoyance  and  further  the 
sign  should  be  well  fastened  to  elude  the  honest  curiosity  of  the 
souvenir  hunter. 

Old  signs  were  simple  enough  in  the  round,  whatever  their 
pictorial  embellishment  might  be.  They  were  suspended  from 
posts,  standing  usually  on  or  near  the  street  line  or  perhaps 
hung  from  a  pole  between  two  trees.  For  a  farm,  it  might  be 
hung  from  the  extended  gate-post  or,  in  the  more  pretentious 
estate,  take  the  place  of  the  suspended  lantern  above  the  en- 
trance gates.  In  any  event,  its  utility  is  unquestionable  as  an 
identification  for  the  stranger  guest.  It  voices  the  sentiment 
and  hospitality  of  times  that  are  gone,  but  which  in  their  passing 
have  left  a  mellow  glow,  through  which  one  sees  dimly,  yet  feels 
more,  and  though  the  men  and  the  times  are  moving  steadily 
backward  as  we  advance,  they  have  left  a  treasured  heritage — 
the  old  house. 


GLOSSARY 

Architrave.     The  lower  division  of  an  entablature,  or  that  part  which 

rests    immediately    on    the    column.     Also   the    group    of   moldings 

around  a  door  or  other  opening — the  "trim." 
Batten.     A  strip  of  wood  used  for  nailing  across  two  or  more  pieces 

to  hold  them  together. 
Butt.     A  kind  of  hinge  secured  to  an  edge  of  the  door  and  to  the  face 

of  the  jamb  which  butts  against  this  edge  when  the  door  is  shut. 

A  loose-pin  butt  is  one  from  which  the  pivot  pin  is  removable. 
Console.     A  bracket  with  a  scroll-shaped  profile. 

Corbel.     A   projection    from   the   face    of   a   wall   to    support    a   super- 
incumbent weight. 
Cornerboard.     The    upright    L-shaped    member,    usually    made    of    two 

boards,  covering  the  corners  on  the  outside  of  a  frame  house. 
Chamfer.     The   surface  formed  by  cutting  away  the  angle  formed  by 

two  faces  of  a  piece  of  timber,  stone,  etc. 
Cove.     A  concave  molding.     Used  especially  to  designate  the  molding 

at  the  junction  of  side  walls  and  ceiling. 
Dentil.     A   small   rectangular   block  in   a   series   projecting  like  teeth. 

The  series  is  called  a  dentil  course  or  dentil  molding. 
Entablature.     In    classic    architecture    the    architecturally   treated   wall 

resting  upon  the  capitals  of  the  columns,  and  consisting  of  archi- 
trave, frieze  and  cornice. 
Entasis.     The  slight  curve  representing  the  departure  from  the  vertical 

in  the  shaft  of  a  classic  column. 
Furring.     An  application  of  wood,  brick  or  metal  to  a  wall,  beam  or  the 

like,  to  level  a  surface  as  for  lathing,  plastering,  etc.,  to  make  an 

air  space  or  to  make  the  wall  thicker  for  another  reason. 
Framing   post.     An   upright   timber   forming  an   integral   part   of   the 

frame  or  skeleton  structure  of  a  building  and  supporting  a  girder 

or  plate. 
King-post.     A  vertical  member  connecting  the  apex  of  a  triangular  truss 

with  the  base. 
Louvers.     The  sloping  boards  set  to  shed  rainwater  outward  in  openings 

which  are  to  be  left  otherwise  unfilled. 
Muntin.     A  slender  bar  forming  a  division  between  lights  of  windows,  etc. 
Palladian  (motive  or  window).     Referring  to  architectural  forms  founded 

on  the  work  of  Andrea  Palladio,  an  Italian  architect  of  the  16th 

161 


162  RECLAIMING  THE  OLD  HOUSE 

century,  but  especially  to  the  motive  comprising  three  windows  the 
century,  but  especially  to  the  motive  comprising  three  windows,  the 

Purlin.  A  horizontal  member  in  a  roof  running  at  right  angles  to  the 
rafters.     It  occurs  between  the  ridge  and  the  wall  plate. 

Rabbet.  A  longitudinal  channel  cut  out  of  the  edge  or  face  of  any  body, 
especially  one  intended  to  receive  another  member.     From  rebate. 

Rake  (molding).  A  molding  or  series  of  moldings  running  up  the  in- 
clination of  a  gable  end  or  pediment.  They  are  necessarily  cut  in 
a  distorted  profile  to  miter  with  a  horizontal  run. 

Ridge-board.  A  V-shaped  member  covering  the  intersection  of  two  planes 
of  a  roof  at  their  high  point. 

Stile.  One  of  the  upright  pieces  in  framing  or  paneling,  into  which  the 
secondary  members  are  tenoned. 

Soffit.  The  under  side  of  the  subordinate  parts  and  members  of  build- 
ings, such  as  staircases,  entablatures,  archways,  cornices  or  the  like. 

Stringer.  A  horizontal  timber  to  connect  uprights  in  a  frame  or  to  sup- 
port floor  joists.  Also  short  for  string  course,  one  of  the  inclined 
sides  of  a  stair  supporting  the  treads  and  risers ;  hence  a  similar 
member  whether  supporting  or  not. 

Scuttle.     A  small  opening  in  a  wall  roof  or  floor  furnished  with  a  lid. 

iStudding.  The  upright  members  (2x4  in.  or  3x4  in.  scantlings)  in 
the  framing  for  lath-and-plaster  partitions,  and  furring,  upon 
which  the  lath  are  nailed.  Applied  also  to  similar  members  in  an 
outside  wall. 

Stool  (of  a  window).  The  flat  member  set  vertically  under  the  front 
edge  of  the  sill. 

Tie-beam.  A  beam  acting  as  a  tie,  as  in  a  roof,  to  secure  together  oppo- 
site rafters. 

Trammel  bar.  An  iron  rod  held  in  place  over  the  fire  chamber  in  a  fire- 
place, on  which,  by  means  of  hooks,  were  hung  pots,  kettles,  etc. 

Trimmer  arch.  An  arch  built  between  trimmers  or  from  a  wall  to  a 
trimmer  to  support  a  hearth. 

Trimmer.  A  beam  which  receives  the  end  of  a  header  (a  short  joist)  in 
floor  framing,  as  about  a  hole  left  for  stairs  or  to  avoid  bringing 
joists  into  or  near  a  chimney. 

Verge-board.  The  plain,  molded  or  carved  member  covering  and  depend- 
ing from  the  projecting  edge  of  a  roof  or  a  gable. 

Volute.  A  spiral  scroll-shaped  ornament,  especially  that  which  forms 
the  chief  feature  of  the  Ionic  capital. 


/ 


/  / 


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